Today, the United States House of Representatives Select Panel on Infant Lives released some of the findings compiled from months of investigation. The findings in the interim report include a list of nine abortion affiliates and fetal tissue procurement companies that the panel has referred for criminal and regulatory sanction. Among the offenders on the list in today’s release is Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in southeast Texas and Louisiana. The list was released before the House votes on H. Res. 933, which is expected today. H. Res. 933 would fund the Select Panel’s work through the end of the year.
The panel, which was formed in October 2015, investigated allegations following the release of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress. The videos show top executives of Planned Parenthood and fetal tissue procurement agencies discussing the trafficking of body parts from aborted babies for profit and altering abortion procedures, including executives from an abortion mill in Houston, Texas.
According to the fact sheet sent out by the Select Panel, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast “broke the law when it sold aborted baby remains for profit to the University of Texas.” Earlier this year, a Freedom of Information Act request yielded evidence of these transactions. Operation Rescue’s Texas attorney, Briscoe Cain, who made the request, referred the evidence to investigators. After review, the Select Panel has now referred the case to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The list released by the Select Panel is encouraging for Texas Pro-Lifers. Following the shocking undercover video that featured Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Texas authorities were swift to begin investigating. The video showed PPGC’s director of research, Melissa Farrell, discussing “intact fetal cadavers” for harvesting high quality baby organs for sale and disguising profits from such sales as “just a matter of line items.”
Unfortunately, former Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson mismanaged the case to the benefit of her friends at Planned Parenthood. In a disastrous miscarriage of justice, the grand jury indicted citizen journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the heroes who documented the shocking misconduct of Planned Parenthood. Anderson failed to prosecute Planned Parenthood after they were caught red-handed in blatant wrong-doing. The felony charges against Daleiden and Merritt were later dropped but their indictment remains a disgrace to Harris County. Last month, voters let Anderson know that her collusion with the anti-Life lobby and embarrassing mismanagement of such a monumental case would not be tolerated. Anderson lost her bid for re-election as the Harris County District Attorney.
The diligent work of the federal House Select Panel under the leadership of Pro-Life stalwart Representative Marsha Blackburn has renewed hopes in Texas that the shocking evidence revealed by the Center for Medical Progress will be thoroughly investigated and those at fault held accountable to the full extent of the law.