Anyone hoping the Planned Parenthood controversy would disappear got some bad news yesterday: it isn't. Not any time soon. With stacks of new evidence, the House Select Panel on Infant Lives more than justified its existence and the investigation's. Not surprisingly, liberals responded to the spotlight on truth like a caged animal in a dark room. One after another they lashed out at Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), conservatives, and expert witnesses for presenting a compelling case that liberals tried -- and failed -- to discredit.
Despite creating a clear connection between the procurement business and Planned Parenthood, Democrats like Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) refused to debate the issue on the merits and instead criticized the GOP's supposed "political motivations. At one point, Shaheen argued that the entire panel should be disbanded for constituting an inappropriate misuse of federal resources." But if anything's a misuse of federal resources, it's the tens of millions of dollars taxpayers are forced to send to an organization under congressional investigation!
Based on the billing information, consent forms, advertising, and a slew of other exhibits highlighted by Blackburn, not one, not two -- but three former federal prosecutors agreed that a criminal probe is warranted. "Based on my review of the exhibits, a competent, ethical federal prosecutor could establish probable cause that both the abortion clinics and the procurement business violated the statute, aided and abetted one another in violating the statute, and likely conspired together to violate the statute," Brian Lennon testified. Kenneth Sukhia and Michael Norton agreed. Still, the president's party tried to push back, arguing that the majority's charts were either manufactured by staff or pulled from David Daleiden videos -- rather than the real source: procurers StemExpress.
At one point, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) even had the audacity to suggest that conservatives were risking people's lives with its hearing. "The Republican majority [is] going to extreme lengths to advance their dual agendas of smearing organizations... knowing that the smears would endanger the lives of people who work for these organizations... McCarthy endangered people's jobs. This committee is knowingly endangering people's lives." Not only is that insulting, but it's an outright lie. How that congressman isn't called out for defaming the women on the panel and its two doctors is astounding.
One of the more shocking revelations of the hearing came from Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), who explained how procurement offices were illegally sharing patient information before their abortions and before they signed informed consent forms -- a serious violation of HIPPA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Despite the Left's best efforts, nothing could distract from the facts, which are that the organ harvesting ring is a lucrative one for procurers -- and Planned Parenthood. Rep. Blackburn talked more about why in a conversation with me on yesterday's "Washington Watch" (listen here). In the end, Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebr.) urged his colleagues,
"Questions of profit and legality matter because we are talking about people. It matters whether or not procurement businesses broke the law. It matters whether or not abortion clinics line their pockets through the dismemberment and distribution of children -- all while receiving tax dollars. It matters because we are talking about the tiny limbs of babies with dignity -- the broken yet still precious children of mothers and fathers... Our disagreement over abortion will sometimes be heated, but wherever possible, we should look for consensus. Here, on this basic reality, we can and must find agreement: Babies are not the sum of their body parts. Babies are not meant to be bought. Babies are not meant to be sold."
