The Questions Congress Demands Planned Parenthood Answer

Pro-life Congressmen are demanding greater answers of Planned Parenthood – and the Obama administration – about whether the nation’s leading abortion provider is engaging in an illegal abortion procedure that is tantamount to infanticide. Yesterday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-VA, and Constitution and Civil Justice Subcommittee Chairman Trent Franks, R-AZ,  called on the Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide further information into the Department’s previous investigations into the altering of abortion procedures in order to obtain fetal body parts. The letter is part of the Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation into the acts of Planned Parenthood, and comes a month after Chairman Goodlatte and Subcommittee Chairman Franks sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch demanding further investigation by DOJ into whether Planned Parenthood violated the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Recent videos featuring executives from Planned Parenthood discuss the sale, and possibly the alteration of abortion procedures, in order to harvest intact fetal body parts. The committee is seeking further answers from the Justice Department about the laws that govern such practices and their enforcement. Chairman Goodlatte’s letter to DOJ specifically states that “new evidence suggests that this disturbing practice of altering the procedure is more than an isolated instance.” Based on the evidence presented in the videos featuring Planned Parenthood executives, Chairman Goodlatte has called upon DOJ to assess three federal laws that may be implicated by these videos, and expressed the Committee’s “interest in understanding the history of the enforcement of these laws at the Department of Justice.” Below is the text of the letter. A copy of the signed letter can be found here.

August 17, 2015 The Honorable Loretta Lynch Attorney General United States Department of Justice Washington, DC 20530 Dear Attorney General Lynch: The House Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation into whether Planned Parenthood abortionists altered procedures in order to harvest the organs and body parts of aborted children. “I’d say a lot of people want liver,” an executive from Planned Parenthood stated in a video released on July 15, 2015. “And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps.” She further stated: “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” New evidence suggests that this disturbing practice of altering the procedure is more than an isolated instance. In a recent video released on July 21, 2015, yet another Planned Parenthood abortionist executive stated: Let me explain to you a little bit of a problem, which may not be a big problem, if our usual technique is suction at 10 to 12 weeks and we switch to using an IPAS [manual vacuum aspirator] or something with less suction or to increase the odds that it will come out as an intact specimen, then we’re kind of violating the protocol that says to the patient, “We’re not doing anything different in our care of you.” Now to me, that’s kind of a specious little argument and I wouldn’t object to asking Ian, who’s our surgeon who does the cases, to use an IPAS at that gestational age in order to increase the odds that he’s going to get an intact specimen. Later in the video, when asked if she would be happy with the dollar amount per specimen suggested by the undercover investigative journalist, the Planned Parenthood abortionist executive stated: “Well, let me find out from other affiliates in California [what they] are getting and if they’re getting more, then we can discuss it then.” She continued, “But, you know, the money is not the important thing, but it has to be big enough that it’s worthwhile for me.” At least three federal laws may be implicated by this video: 42 U.S.C. § 274e, which states that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce”; 42 U.S.C. § 289g, which states that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce”; and 18 U.S.C. § 1531, which prohibits partial-birth abortions. We write regarding our interest in understanding the history of the enforcement of these laws at the Department of Justice. Please provide the Committee with a copy of the complaint in every case filed by the Department in which a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 274e, 42 U.S.C. § 289g, or 18 U.S.C. § 1531, and any related federal laws, is alleged. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this request.