Congressional Panel refers Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for criminal prosecution

On Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel for Infant Lives announced it has referred Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for criminal prosecution for its role in the trafficking of aborted fetal body parts.

Operation Rescue noted:

Texas Right to Life responded to the news:

The Texas and Louisiana Planned Parenthood affiliate is one of nine criminal and regulatory referrals from the Select Panel. The list includes (per Operation Rescue): the University of New Mexico (in partnership with Southwestern Women’s Options, a late-term abortion facility); fetal tissue procurement company StemExpress; an Arkansas abortion facility; a university in Ohio; DV Biologics, a fetal tissue procurement company; Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), another fetal tissue procurement company; Presidential Women’s Center, a Florida abortion facility; and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.

The Gulf Coast affiliate of the abortion chain was implicated in undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress. In August of 2015, Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released its gruesome fifth video, in which the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, reveals the way Planned Parenthood is willing to alter the abortion procedures on women so that buyers can obtain the “right specimens” such as “intact fetal cadavers.”

CMP reported:

Intact Fetuses "Just a Matter of Line Items" for Planned Parenthood TX Mega-Center

As Texas Right to Life notes, former Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson “mismanaged the case to the benefit of her friends at Planned Parenthood,” indicting “citizen journalists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the heroes who documented the shocking misconduct of Planned Parenthood” instead of prosecuting Planned Parenthood “after they were caught red-handed in blatant wrong-doing.”

Charges against the CMP investigators were later dropped, and Anderson was not re-elected. But as Texas Right to Life notes, Daleiden’s and Merritt’s indictments remain “a disgrace to Harris County.” Now, however, the Select Panel has offered another opportunity to prosecute. In response to the news, the Center for Medical Progress released a statement, saying in part:

As CMP notes:

Also on Thursday, the House Committee on Administration voted in favor of H. Res. 933, which will double the budget for the Select Panel’s continued investigation into the fetal parts industry. Select Panel Chair Marsha Blackburn responded to the vote:

With an increased budget, it seems likely there may be more criminal referrals and findings from the Select Panel.