I want to thank the Majority Whip - Steve Scalise - for joining us today to accept this Interim Update as prepared by the Select Investigative Panel.
Steve has been a strong advocate for the work the House has undertaken in our effort to protect women and the unborn. I want to commend him for his tireless leadership on behalf of all pro-life Americans.
This Panel was established last fall when the House passed H. Res. 461 as a result of the horrific videos that were released just one year ago. We were tasked with investigating what appears to have become a business enterprise - the selling of baby body parts. The information we are presenting to the House leadership today offers a snapshot of what the Panel has uncovered so far - documentation that shows abortion clinics and middlemen who are exploiting women and selling baby body parts as part of a business plan to make more money.
When we hear in the videos how Dr. Deborah Nucatola recounts her discussion with the Stem Express tissue tech, “What are you looking to supply today... let’s look at the list and see what we need today...we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung and liver... so I’m going to basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact."
This should disgust us all.
At our first hearing on Bioethics and Fetal Tissue, everyone agreed that no one should profit from the sale of human fetal tissue. In fact, under federal law, it is a 10-year felony to do so. More importantly, the motive for illicit profit we have found through our inquiry could contaminate collateral activities in four important ways:
First, the sale of baby body parts for profit could have a corrupting effect on the treatment of women facing an abortion decision.
Second, we are concerned with a history of babies being born alive and the sale of baby body parts at some late-term abortion clinics.
Third, through our investigation we have uncovered evidence that some abortion providers have altered abortion procedures in a manner that substitutes what is best for the patient with a financial benefit for both the abortion clinic and the procurement company.
And Fourth, the motive for profit sullies the integrity of our nation’s celebrated history of voluntary organ donation.
During our hearing on The Pricing of Fetal Tissue all witnesses suggested that accounting and bank records would be critical to understanding whether the abortion clinics and middlemen have violated federal law.
Although we have made some progress in this effort, many individuals who have received congressional subpoenas have heavily redacted critical information, and some have refused to comply at all. Still others have communicated in writing that they have relied upon minority memoranda to support their noncompliance. At every turn the minority has publicly advocated that the Panel be disbanded and has privately attempted to obstruct the Panel’s fact-finding mission.
As Speaker Ryan recently noted in a letter to Ranking Member Schakowsky - “The Select Panel on Infant Lives has already proven its worth by revealing how some entities in the fetal tissue industry may have violated federal law."
Information is a critical tool for Congress to fulfill its responsibility in conducting proper oversight, so in the coming months, the Panel will undertake initiatives to gain full compliance with its subpoenas.
