The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will investigate the Obama administration’s connection to Planned Parenthood in the aftermath of multiple videos showing the abortion giant’s illegal sale of aborted baby parts.
Congress and a handful of states are investigating Planned Parenthood after multiple videos by Center for Medical Progress show top-level executives haggling over the price of fetal parts. Five states have defunded Planned Parenthood over the scandal, but the Obama administration may start to feel the heat, too.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to know if the Obama administration, via the Department of Health and Human Services, provided any federal grants to Planned Parenthood that ultimately went to pay for the sales of aborted baby body parts and if they were used by Planned Parenthood to “support transactions involving fetal tissue.”
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, along with subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan, sent letters to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Cecile Richards, demanding the following main items from the Obama administration:
1. Identify each agency within HHS that provides funding and/or support to Planned Parenthood or its affiliates, and the programs that each agency administers that provide such funding and/or support.
2. For each year 2010 through present, identify the total amount of federal funding that HHS provided to Planned Parenthood or its affiliates, broken down by agency, group, and program.
3. Identify what restrictions or regulations apply to the use of funding provided by HHS to Planned Parenthood or its affiliates.
4. Identify, specifically, what procedures, services, or other medical treatments are available only or exclusively at a Planned Parenthood affiliate or health center… Do not include services or procedures that could otherwise be provided by a private health care provider.
And these items from Planned Parenthood:
The Obama administration, which has refused to condemn Planned Parenthood’s egregious trafficking of baby parts, also stated that the President has not viewed the undercover videos. The administration poured over $1.5 billion over three years to the abortion business under federal programs, a report by the GAO reveals.
One thing Planned Parenthood will have difficulty proving is that it provides services and procedures that cannot be obtained elsewhere, aside from abortion. There is no shortage of health clinics that could replace Planned Parenthood, offering comprehensive health care to women. Of course, there’s a good chance that CEO Cecile Richards will simply blow off the demands, considering that Planned Parenthood refused to testify in Texas, and would not allow Dr. Deborah Nucatola to testify before Congress.
The real question, however, is this: How will the Obama administration respond? It’s no secret that President Obama is one of Planned Parenthood’s most ardent supporters, not to mention the most pro-abortion president this country has ever had. Instead of being outraged over Planned Parenthood’s gruesome and illegal activity, the administration scolded states for defunding Planned Parenthood.
Obama even felt that the perfect time to release a video praising Planned Parenthood was during the peak of the scandal. It seems hard to believe that the administration will be forthcoming and honest. There is no question that Obama will want to do everything he can to protect Planned Parenthood — but if Congress does not back down, he may not have the ability to keep the abortion giant’s illegal activity— and his administration’s culpability—from the light any longer.
