That Planned Parenthood was less than thrilled with the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives’ hearing on Wednesday should come as no surprise, but the lengths they are going to in order to put an end to the investigation are disturbing.
Prior to the hearing’s start, Planned Parenthood made the following statement on its official Twitter account:
“Today’s Select Committee hearing is just another attempt to undermine women’s health care by generating hostility for abortion providers.”
Then came the opening statement from Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), in which she became the abortionists’ mouthpiece, accusing the panel’s Republicans of repeating lies, and of wanting to jeopardize the lives of women:
From the outset, this investigation has not been an objective or fact-based search for the truth but a political weapon to attack women’s health care and life-saving research and harass and intimidate those who provide these services …
For today’s hearing, Republicans have again invited witnesses who believe that abortion should be illegal—that women should not be permitted or trusted to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Some continue to declare that Planned Parenthood is selling fetal tissue for profit despite the fact that three House Committees, 12 states, and a Texas grand jury have already cleared the organization of wrongdoing. These witnesses—like our Republican colleagues—endorse and rely upon the video allegations of anti-abortion extremist David Daleiden and his associates to support their inflammatory claims.
Anyone who has been following the facts knows the truth: Mr. Daleiden’s videos are not accurate or reliable, and they do not show the unlawful sale of fetal tissue …
Today, my Republican colleagues likely will claim that it is not just the videos. They may assert that documents that this Panel has received or that Republican staff have created show the need for further investigation. This is also false.
But is Schakowsky actually concerned about the health and well-being of others, or her campaign coffers in a re-election year? Planned Parenthood’s PAC and employees donated nearly $4,000 during the 2014 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
In fact, Planned Parenthood donated more than $23,000 to Democrats on the panel last cycle. Through its PAC and employees, it donated nearly $680,000 to 155 House and Senate candidates, of which only one was a Republican (who is not a member of the panel).
Democrats on the panel attempted to put a halt to its proceedings Wednesday, but that effort failed on a party-line vote.
