Democrats Lose Vote to Shut Down Congressional Investigation of Planned Parenthood

By Steven Ertelt, Micaiah Bilger
Life News

House Democrats lost a vote late Tuesday in their attempt to shut down the Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood and sales of body part from aborted babies.

Pro-abortion Democrats aren’t giving up their efforts to thwart an investigation of Planned Parenthood, despite mounting evidence that it profited from the sale of baby body parts and deceived women. Earlier this month, 98 Democrats in Congress signed a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan and panel chair Rep. Marsha Blackburn demanding that they dismantle the Congressional panel that is investigating the abortion industry.

Yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee considered the appropriations bill that funds Congress. During the vote on the legislation, pro-abortion Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) offered an amendment to shut down the Select Panel on Infant Lives. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), a pro-life physician, who serves both on the Appropriations Committee and the Select Panel, spoke against the measure explaining some of the work done by the Select Panel so far. The amendment failed by a vote of 20-28 with Republican Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) voting with Democrats.

With the panel’s million intact, it will continue the investigation with a new focus on late-term abortion practitioner LeRoy Carhart.

Congress formed the Select Panel on Infant Lives to investigate abortion industry practices after a series of undercover videos showed top Planned Parenthood officials discussing the trafficking of aborted babies’ body parts. In the past few months, the panel has uncovered evidence that the abortion business deceived women on its consent formsand illegally profited from the sale of aborted babies’ body parts.
But pro-abortion Democrats have ignored this evidence and continued to attack the investigative effort.
In the letter written by U.S. Reps. Bill Foster and Zoe Lofgren, they accused pro-life legislators on the panel of “endanger[ing] health care providers and patients with its extreme rhetoric claiming that Planned Parenthood is selling baby parts.” They also accused them of “intimidating” scientific researchers who are using fetal tissue in research by subpoenaing documents from research groups that worked with abortion clinics.

“It is clear that this Panel serves no other purpose than to carry out politically-motivated attacks on Planned Parenthood and it should be dissolved immediately,” they wrote.

In addition, they blamed pro-life legislators for attempting to stall scientific research using aborted babies’ body parts that they claim could help find cures for diseases and save lives. However, Blackburn previously pointed out to LifeNews that life-saving medical advances are being made without using aborted babies’ body parts.

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