WASHINGTON – The debate over whether Planned Parenthood violated federal law through the sale of fetal tissue, and whether federal dollars should continue to fund some of its health services, continues in Congress.
On Sept. 9, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony intended to inform the ongoing debate. However, no representatives from either Planned Parenthood or The Center for Medical Progress, which released videos this summer alleging that the women’s health organization was illegally profiting from the sale of fetal tissue, were a part of the hearing.
That point was not lost on the committee’s Democrats, who said the videos released to the public were heavily edited and may have had context removed that would have demonstrated that Planned Parenthood was not engaging in any illegal activity.
Rep. John Conyers Jr.
“Notably, The Center for Medical Progress – the entity that filmed these videos and which could answer significant and troubling questions about their accuracy and veracity – is not here today,” Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said in his opening statement. “In addition, the majority chose not to invite Planned Parenthood, the target of today’s attacks.”
Separately, the Democratic staff of the House Energy and Commerce Committee issued a memo stating that an investigation conducted by their committee “uncovered no evidence that Planned Parenthood violated the law.”
That same conclusion was reached by Ms. Priscilla Smith, director of the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School, who testified during the Judiciary Committee hearing that “there is simply no evidence in these misleadingly edited videos of a violation” of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 or laws governing fetal tissue donation.
But Republican members of the committee countered that some of the videos revelations – specifically about how abortions were conducted – would not be impacted by editing.
“In this case, the videos were so abhorrent and so unconscionable that it is our responsibility to step up and to have these hearings to get to the bottom of it before we go forward with the same old, same old of funding and funding for the sake of having done it before,” Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.) said.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, acknowledged during the hearing that the majority party has not reached out to The Center for Medical Progress to obtain the raw footage.
A second hearing on this subject is expected to be scheduled soon. The battle to defund Planned Parenthood, based largely on the release of the controversial videos, is now taking center stage in federal budget discussions. A government shutdown is possible if lawmakers can’t come to a compromise over Planned Parenthood funding before the Sept. 30 deadline to pass budget legislation.