Republicans say abortion clinics broke the law by selling fetal organs

WASHINGTON -- Republicans on a special House panel investigating the practices of abortion providers said Thursday those providers and their middlemen have violated federal law by selling tissues and organs from aborted fetuses.

In an interim report to Congress, the panel’s GOP majority said it has uncovered evidence that some providers were so eager to profit from selling fetal tissue that they altered abortion procedures to put financial benefit above the health of women .

“No one should profit from the sale of human fetal tissue,” said Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who chairs the panel.

According to the 88-page report, some late-term abortion clinics engage in what Republicans say is the disturbing practice of harvesting and selling the organs of infants who have been born alive.

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The report, which the panel said provides a snapshot of what it's uncovered so far, also accuses abortion providers and companies involved in the procurement of fetal tissue of stonewalling the committee’s investigation by refusing to turn over accounting and banking records critical to understanding their business practices. In cases where records were provided, they often were heavily redacted, the report says.

“If they are proud of this industry, if there is nothing to hide, if they think this is moral and meets the laws of America, then open up,” said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis. “Give us the documents we are asking for.”

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, blasted the GOP report.

“Once again Republicans are making inflammatory claims that they cannot substantiate and relying on manufactured documents and fraudulent videos that have been thoroughly discredited,” she said. “Never before have I witnessed such a disconnect between allegations and the facts.”

The 14-member House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives was formed last year after a firestorm over undercover videos that accused Planned Parenthood of breaking federal laws by selling tissues and organs of aborted fetuses.

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Planned Parenthood and its supporters said the videos were deceptively edited, and a number of state investigations cleared the organization of any wrongdoing.

The House panel’s investigation has been riven by partisan warfare, with Democrats charging that Blackburn and Republicans are abusing their authority and putting lives at risk.

Democrats have repeatedly called on House Speaker Paul Ryan to disband the panel, but Ryan and other GOP leaders have expressed support for the panel’s work.

At a news conference on Thursday, Republican Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana accepted the interim report from Blackburn and made it clear GOP leaders stand behind the committee.

“Based on what the panel has uncovered so far, everything continues to point to abortion and middlemen breaking federal laws to profit off the disgusting practice of selling baby body parts,” Scalise said.

Republicans accused Democrats on the committee of working with abortion providers and procurement companies to help thwart the investigation. Some individuals have defied congressional subpoenas to turn over the records and justified their refusal by pointing to memoranda written by Democrats, Blackburn said.

She said the committee will continue its investigation and issue its final report by the end of the year.

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“We are going to pursue getting the truth,” she said.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Diane Black said that, based upon what the committee has found so far, she is more certain than ever of the need for the investigation.

GOP Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri said the investigation has uncovered “a dark, dark industry” that not only harvests tissue from aborted fetuses but misleads women and puts their health at risk.

“We are proving and showing the sad reality they are not for women’s health – they are for a profit,” she said.

Schakowsky, however, said Republicans are the ones putting lives at risk.

“If you believe that congressional Republicans care about individual privacy and safety, you would have learned otherwise today,” she said. “Despite public promises to ‘act responsibly with each and every name’ that they are collecting — Republicans today publicly named names without regard to the consequences.”

The report, which Schakowsky said Democrats learned about through a press advisory, “proves that this panel needs to be disbanded now, before more lives are put at risk,” she said.