The FBI has asked to see documents gathered by the Senate Judiciary Committee during its investigation into whether abortion providers like Planned Parenthood sold baby body parts for illegal profits. That according to The Hill, a political journalism publication.
This suggests the Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering or may have even launched its own criminal investigation. Neither the FBI or DOJ will comment publicly.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Judiciary Committee chairman said in December 2016, when the committee wrapped up its investigation, that it had gathered enough evidence to show illegal profits were made selling fetal body parts. Grassley then asked DOJ and the FBI to launch a criminal probe of the abortion providers and medical firms involved in those sales.
Paid $60, Made $2,275
It’s not illegal for women getting abortions to donate fetal tissue from their unborn children and for those harvesting and selling those remains to recover the costs of harvesting them or procuring them from the abortion provider—but it is illegal to profit from such sales.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s report quoted one firm’s records that showed it paid $60 for an aborted baby and then sold that slain child’s body parts for $2,275.
The Hill noted Planned Parenthood’s Vice President of Gov’t Affairs Dana Singiser stated, “Planned Parenthood has never, and would never, profit while facilitating its patients’ choice to donate fetal tissue for use in important medical research.”
Lila Rose of the pro-life group Live Action rejected Planned Parenthood’s claims of innocence. She told Hill.com, “Planned Parenthood did make substantial amounts of money off of the bodies of the children they had aborted. And this evidence is clear in the Senate Judiciary’s report and it will become increasingly clear in the days to come as the FBI continues their own investigation.”
Squeezing Every Last Opportunity for Cash
Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List said Tuesday, “Not content with their status as the nation’s largest abortion business, evidence shows Planned Parenthood sought to squeeze every last opportunity for cash from the sale of hearts, brains, lungs and livers of the unborn children whose lives they end.”
Planned Parenthood’s Singiser also claimed, “Investigations by three other congressional committees and investigations in 13 states including a grand jury in Texas, have all shown that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong.”
But a statement released Tuesday by Dannenfelser’s SBA List said, “In responding to the DOJ, Planned Parenthood makes several misleading claims.”
Claims and Challenges to Those Claims
The SBA List statement said those three congressional committees never cleared Planned Parenthood because their investigations simply came to a quick halt when the Senate’s major investigation formed and took over. That investigation found so much evidence of wrongdoing, its final majority staff report asked DOJ and the FBI to launch a criminal probe.
Undercover videos from the pro-life Center for Medical Progress first revealed the extent of the selling of baby body parts and profiting off those sales. The SBA List points out none of the abortion-providers documented by the Center for Medical Progress were in the 12 states that did limited reviews of baby body parts being sold.
So those 12 states may not have found any wrongdoing, but that doesn’t clear the abortion-providers in the states where the Center for Medical Progress did its undercover investigating.
As to the Texas grand jury, it never actually concentrated on the question of Planned Parenthood’s guilt or innocence and never voted on whether or not to indict the abortion provider.
Reprinted with permission from CBN.com. Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, all rights reserved. {eoa}
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