The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives called on New Mexico’s
Justice Department on June 23 to review the possible illegal transfer of
baby body parts.
Panel chairwoman U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., issued a criminal
referral to the New Mexico attorney general for the connection between
the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Southwestern Women’s Options
(SWWO), an abortion provider located one mile from campus. The panel
claims to have evidence that SWWO illegally gifted body parts to UNM for
research.
“[T]he panel has discovered that personnel within UNM’s hospital and
medical school have aggressively engaged in expanding abortion in New
Mexico,” Blackburn said.
The referral calls for the attorney general to take a closer look at
the symbiotic relationship between UNM and SWWO—which possibly violates
state law.
New Mexico’s Spradling Act bars anatomical gifts of baby remains from
an induced abortion. SWWO consent forms given to mothers who abort their
babies do not validate the donation of body parts to outside groups,
Blackburn said.
UNM refutes the accusation and says it carefully follows both state and federal laws for its research.
“We categorically deny [Blackburn’s] assertions in every respect,”
Billy Sparks, a spokesman for UNM, told the Albuquerque Journal. “[The
Spradling Act] does not apply to fetuses from pregnancies that may have
been terminated at Southwestern Women’s Options.”
Sparks claims UNM has never purchased fetal tissue from abortion providers.
Pro-abortion advocates have pushed back hard against the House panel
since it started its investigation last fall. The panel set out to
scrutinize fetal tissue research and the links between abortion
providers and tissue procurement companies. So far, its investigators
have made several notable discoveries.
In April, the panel uncovered evidence that StemExpress profited from
the sale of baby body parts collected from abortion centers. The panel
found StemExpress hired “tissue technicians” to round up body parts at
abortion centers, making $10 an hour plus a commission for each part.
The panel also saved screen grabs of the StemExpress website, which
allowed customers to purchase individual body parts at whatever
gestational period they choose. Republicans called it the “Amazon.com”
of baby body parts.
Democrats rejected the evidence and accused Republicans of falsifying documents.
The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, has called
the investigation a partisan witch hunt and said the panel should be
disbanded. She wrote a letter in May and then another one earlier this
month to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., accusing the panel of getting
in the way of valuable medical research using fetal tissue.
“The panel Republicans’ anti-science agenda is putting life-saving
research at risk,” Schakowsky said. “Congress should support, not
threaten, research that advances our understanding of fetal and human
development and brings us closer to treating and curing diseases.”
Ryan responded this week with a letter of his own, applauding the panel
for doing good work and vowing it isn’t going away anytime soon.
“The value of human life is so precious that we must closely examine
whether current public policy protects it,” Ryan said. “I support the
panel in completing its work.”
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
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