Senate calls for prosecution of Planned Parenthood

WASHINGTON—Senate Judiciary Republicans asked the FBI and Department of Justice on Tuesday to investigate possible criminal activity from Planned Parenthood affiliates and several fetal tissue transfer companies.

“I don’t take lightly making a criminal referral,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., Senate Judiciary Committee chairman. “But, the seeming disregard for the law by these entities has been fueled by decades of utter failure by the Justice Department to enforce it. And, unless there is a renewed commitment by everyone involved against commercializing the trade in aborted fetal body parts for profit, then the problem is likely to continue.”

Grassley and Republican committee staff members prepared a 547-page report from a review of more than 20,000 pages of documents from organizations and companies involved in the fetal tissue procurement industry. In a letter to FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Grassley asked, based on the findings, for a criminal investigation against the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, four of its larger affiliates, and three middlemen procurement businesses.

The report implicates Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, Planned Parenthood Northern California, and Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest in illegal profiteering from selling fetal tissue from abortions. It also highlights three partner businesses—Stem Express, Advanced Bioscience Resources, and Novogenix Laboratories—that could be making illegal profits from selling fetal tissue to researchers.

“While the committee does not have all the details of what transpired between the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and these affiliates, the facts uncovered raise a reasonable suspicion that these organizations and/or individuals employed by them may have engaged in a conspiracy to violate the fetal tissue law,” Grassley wrote to the FBI and Justice Department.

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 permits fetal tissue transfer for research with consent from the mother. But the bipartisan law explicitly bars commodification of baby remains; selling them for a profit is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The report claims over the last 23 years the executive branch has failed to enforce the law’s safeguards, allowing for unfettered growth of fetal tissue transfer. The Justice Department has never initiated a prosecution for breaking the fetal tissue procurement law.

According to the documents, Advanced Bioscience Resources, StemExpress, and Novogenix Laboratories paid affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America to acquire aborted baby remains and then sold them to customers at higher prices than their documented costs.

Judiciary Republicans began investigating Planned Parenthood and the fetal tissue procurement industry upon release of undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress in summer 2015. The House of Representatives launched its own 14-member select panel to investigate possible violations by abortion providers.

Earlier this month, the House panel took a similar step, making its own criminal referral against Planned Parenthood.

The Obama administration is not expected to follow through on either recommendation, but the referrals provide the future Trump administration with a framework to levy its own charges against the abortion giant—or at least strip its federal funding.

“Planned Parenthood has engaged in inhumane and barbaric procedures that are possibly illegal, and they must be held accountable,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. “While our nation is divided on abortion, we shouldn’t force the taxes of Americans who strongly oppose organ harvesting or abortion to continue to fund an organization that carries out these inhumane practices.”