The House Select Panel on Infant Lives announced Feb. 12 it will issue
subpoenas to several organizations with ties to the fetal tissue
industry after they refused to provide requested information.
“Without these subpoenas, the American people and the House itself
would be left to speculate about what is going on in the fetal tissue
industry,” said panel chairwoman Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., in a
statement. “We cannot leave questions unanswered.”
The panel will deliver the subpoenas to StemExpress, The University of
New Mexico, and Southwestern Women’s Options. All three organizations
have links to the sale of fetal tissue—revealed by an undercover
investigation by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Since its
formation last fall, the panel has sent out more than 30 letters
requesting documents from various organizations connected to the tissue
procurement industry. The three subpoenaed organizations each failed to
provide those requested documents.
The select panel is under the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The 14-member bipartisan group’s mission is to gather information about
the medical practices of abortion providers and the practices of
organizations that sell baby body parts.
The panel is not investigating Planned Parenthood specifically but the abortion and organ procurement businesses as a whole.
Last summer, during the flood of undercover CMP videos, StemExpress cut
ties with Planned Parenthood, fearing further congressional inquiry.
“While we value our business relationship with Planned Parenthood, that
work represents a small percentage of our overall business activity and
we must focus our limited resources on resolving these inquiries,” the
company said in a statement last August.
It is still unclear how many companies bought aborted fetal tissue from
Planned Parenthood and at what price. There is also ambiguity about how
many Planned Parenthood facilities engaged in harvesting baby organs.
Last fall, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards testified before
Congress that only four or five of its more than 700 centers collected
fetal tissue for what she described as “donations” to scientific
research. But according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which studied
all of the CMP videos, there are at least 15.
The Select Panel on Infant Lives has worked behind closed doors for
months gathering information before its first public hearings.
“The people have the right to know where their tax dollars are going,”
said Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., who serves on the panel with Blackburn.
“Not cooperating with the investigation is an affront to the people,
and we are doing what it takes to get the information they deserve.”
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