By Dave Andrusko
Pro-Life Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
The Hill newspaper reported this afternoon that in recent days the FBI has requested “unredacted documents” obtained from abortion providers by the Senate Judiciary Committee, “signaling agents may be investigating whether Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers illegally sold fetal tissue and body parts, according to sources familiar with the document request.”
Reporter John Solomon wrote, “The advent of a criminal investigation into abortion providers would mark a major escalation in a controversy ignited by undercover videotapes made by an anti-abortion group back in 2015.”
Solomon explained that last December Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) “referred Planned Parenthood and several other abortion providers to the FBI for investigation after a lengthy probe into the transfers of fetal tissue.”
At the time Grassley said “that his committee had uncovered enough evidence in its final investigative report to show abortion providers had transferred tissue and body parts from aborted fetuses to firms for use in research by charging dollar amounts above their actual costs,” Solomon reported.
David Daleiden
Indeed when Grassley wrote to ask the FBI and Justice Department to investigate Planned Parenthood and other abortion and fetal tissue providers, he said, “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.”
The Justice Department declined comment when the Hill inquired.
Sources told the Hill that “Grassley staff is working to comply with the FBI’s document request in compliance with Senate rules,” Solomon reported.
Planned Parenthood denied everything.
“These accusations are baseless, and a part of a widely discredited attempt to end access to reproductive health care at Planned Parenthood,” said Dana Singiser, Vice President of Government Affairs for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “Planned Parenthood has never, and would never, profit while facilitating its patients’ choice to donate fetal tissue for use in important medical research.”
According to the story, “The Senate probe and a similar investigation by the House were prompted by the public release in 2015 of several undercover videos from an anti-abortion group showing abortion providers or fetal tissue firms discussing how they took money for aborted fetuses.” This is a reference to the Center for Medical Progress, led by David Daleiden, which did extensive undercover investigation of abortion clinics, companies that traffic in fetal tissue and organs, and universities which use the harvested organs and tissues in research.
“The Senate committee conducted interviews and gathered documents on its own as part of an investigation triggered by the videos,” Solomon continued. “It is that information, including the unredacted documents Senate Judiciary gathered from abortion providers and fetal tissue firms, that was requested by the FBI, the sources said, speaking only on condition of anonymity