Planned Parenthood Under Investigation For Illegal Sale Of Body Parts

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A federal investigation has been launched by the Justice Department into Planned Parenthood over their practices and the sale of fetal tissue.

Stephen Boyd, Justice Department Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs formally requested underacted documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to a letter obtained by Fox News. The Senate Judiciary is the same panel that led the congressional probe into women’s health organization.

 

In the letter, Stephen Boyd wrote “The Department of Justice appreciates the offer of assistance in obtaining these materials, and would like to request the Committee provide unredacted copies of records contained in the report, in order to further the Department’s ability to conduct a thorough and comprehensive assessment of that report based on the full range of information available.”

Fox News learned that the FBI requested the documents from the committee last month after Chuck Grassley the committee’s chairman said they needed to receive a letter from the FBI to be assured that the said documents would be used for investigative purposes.

Boyd said, “At this point, the records are intended for investigative use only—we understand that a resolution from the Senate may be required if the Department were to use any of the unredacted materials in a formal legal proceeding, such as a grand jury.”

“Human Fetal Tissue Research: Context and Controversy” was the committee’s final report published in 2016 when Grassley referred Planned Parenthood and other providers to the FBI for investigation. “The report documents the failure of the Department of Justice, across multiple administrations, to enforce the law that bans the buying and selling of human fetal tissue. It also documents substantial evidence suggesting that the specific entities involved in the recent controversy, and/or individuals employed by those entities, may have violated that law,” Grassley wrote.

He said at the time that the committee had discovered enough evidence to show how abortion providers had transferred fetal tissue and body parts from aborted fetuses for research by charging way above the actual cost.

In 2015, activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt posed undercover as fetal researchers recording themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood and now, as a result, the federal investigation is underway.

“Over two years ago, citizen journalists at The Center for Medical Progress first caught Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors in a series of undercover videos callously and flippantly negotiating the sale of tiny baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains. It is time for public officials to finally hold Planned Parenthood and their criminal abortion enterprise accountable under the law,” David Daleiden said last Thursday.

At the time, Planned Parenthood strongly denied the accusations that it violated any law or acted unethically, they also disagreed with Chuck Grassley’s recommendations to refer the matter to the Justice Department. “Especially in light of the fact that the investigations by three other Congressional committees, and investigations in 13 states including a Grand Jury in Texas, have all shown that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong,” they said.

The Trump administration’s federal investigation will reopen the debate on whether or not Planned Parenthood and other providers violated the law with the sale of body parts illegally.

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