The FBI has confirmed it is reviewing the recommendations of two congressional committees to investigate evidence of Planned Parenthood's trade of the body parts of unborn children.
WND reported in May that leaders of several advocacy groups representing millions of Americans had written to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe seeking an investigation, based on evidence from an independent undercover probe, into "paid fetal tissue transfers involving Planned Parenthood."
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"The facts uncovered raise a reasonable suspicion that these organizations, and/or individuals employed by them, may have engaged in a conspiracy to violate the fetal tissue law," the letter said.
Now, the FBI's assistant director of the Office of Congressional Affairs, Gregory Brower, has replied to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, informing him the FBI received the committee's criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood and is reviewing its recommendations, according to the nonprofit legal group Liberty Counsel.
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Liberty Counsel is representing one of the undercover videographers, Sandra Merritt, who captured Planned Parenthood executives talking about the trade, including one executive even who, anticipating an increase in profits, said, "I want a Lamborghini."
The letter to Grassley was delivered during the summer but was never publicized by the Judiciary Committee, Liberty Counsel said.
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"We can confirm the Criminal Investigative Division (CID) of FBI Headquarters received your referrals and sent them to the relevant FBI field offices for review," the letter said, "and whatever action that is deemed appropriate. Should the field offices have any questions pertaining to findings with the Majority Staff Report, they will be certain to contact your office."
The leaders who are requesting the FBI investigation include Jeanne Mancini of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund, Tom McClusky of the March for Life Action, Daniel Schneider of the American Conservative Union, Catherine Glenn Foster of Americans United for Life; Gary Bauer of American Values, Jim Backlin of Christian Coalition of America, Penny Young Nance of Concerned Women for America, Michael Bowen of SoliDeo Partners, Eunie Smith of Eagle Forum; Rebekah Gantner of Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, David Christensen of Family Research Council, Jonathan Alexandre of Liberty Counsel Action, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, Paul Caprio of One Nation Under God Foundation and Marjorie Dannenfelser of Susan B. Anthony List.
Liberty Counsel noted the Senate Judiciary Committee and the U.S. House Select Panel on Infant Lives both opened investigations into the abortion industry after the Center for Medical Progress first exposed the baby-body- parts trade in 2015. Late last year, both committees concluded their investigations by recommending that the FBI investigate and potentially file criminal charges against Planned Parenthood.
Liberty Counsel said Merritt's "courageous undercover work exposed Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices of harvesting organs from babies and selling them to StemExpress and other organ procurement organizations for extreme profit."
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The Judiciary Committee's Majority Staff Report found, Liberty Counsel reported, Planned Parenthood's partners in the biomedical procurement industry paid the abortion chain's affiliates for the body parts of aborted babies "and then sold the fetal tissue to their respective customers at substantially higher prices than their documented costs."
"The time is well overdue for the FBI to conduct an investigation of Planned Parenthood and other companies that profit from aborted baby body parts," said Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel. "These companies are making outrageous profits from killing babies."
Staver said Merritt "revealed the horrible truth that Planned Parenthood wants to bury."
"The time for butchering precious babies and profiting from this human genocide must end, and the FBI needs to proceed with this investigation immediately."
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Hearings during the 114th Congress culminated in the House of Representatives creating the Select Panel on Infant Lives.
The panel made 15 criminal and regulatory referrals of tissue procurement companies and abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood affiliates.
The Senate Judiciary Committee made another seven criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
The Obama administration, however, ignored the possibility of criminal actions.
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At the time, a letter from Grassley to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and then-FBI Director James Comey said senators had reviewed more than 20,000 pages of information.
Senators found there had been not a single prosecution over multiple administrations despite evidence of "buying or selling of human fetal tissue."
The senators also found there was "substantial evidence suggesting that the specific entities involved in the recent controversy, and/or individuals employed by those entities, may have violated that law."
"Moreover, that evidence is contained in those entities' own records, which were voluntarily provided to the committee and are detailed in the report."
When the House panel voted on a contempt citation for StemExpress, one of the companies allegedly in body-parts trade deals with Planned Parenthood, Democrats on the committee walked out.
"Let me have the record reflect the Democrats are refusing to participate in this illegitimate and unsanctioned effort to seek criminal contempt (charges)," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
"We refuse to sanction or endorse this exercise by continuing to participate," she said then.
The stunt, however, had no impact on the outcome. The committee, after Chairwoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said, "The lady's actions are noted," continued with its vote, approving a report recommending StemExpress, an organ procurement company, and CEO Cate Dyer, be held in contempt of Congress.
The executives have failed to comply with "lawfully issued subpoenas," the committee determined.
See Schakowsky's statement:
The issue has rippled across the country, with some states defunding Planned Parenthood.
One of the videos showed an official admitting Planned Parenthood sells fully intact aborted babies.
Crushing babies
In the first undercover video released by CMP, Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on crushing babies.
"We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I'm not gonna crush that part, I'm gonna basically crush below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact," she said.
See the first video:
In the second video, Planned Parenthood's Mary Gatter discussed how her compensation for organs could rise when she said, "I want a Lamborghini."
See her comments:
The fifth video released shows Melissa Farrell of Planned Parenthood's Houston clinic discussing "intact fetal cadavers."
The seventh video has the testimony of a Planned Parenthood worker who tapped an aborted infant's heart and saw it start beating.
WND reported when a Planned Parenthood-linked judge in California, William Orrick III, censored the latest undercover video that was released.
Even news outlets not party to the case were barred from posting the video.
WND, however, transcribed for its readers the comments of the abortion-industry figures.
Lisa Harris, medical director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan, says in the video: "Our stories don't really have a place in a lot of pro-choice discourse and rhetoric, right? The heads that get stuck that we can't get out. The hemorrhages that we manage."
Susan Robinson of Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte in San Jose, California: "The fetus is a tough little object and taking it apart, I mean taking it apart, on day one is very difficult.'
Talcott Camp, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Reproductive Health Freedom Project: "I'm like oh my god! I get it! When the skull is broken, that's really sharp. I get it, I understand why people are talking about getting that skull out, that calvarium."
Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America: "You know, sometimes she'll tell me she wants brain, and we'll, you know, leave the calvarium in 'til last, and then try to basically take it, or actually, you know, catch everything, and even keep it separate from the rest of the tissue so it doesn't get lost."
Uta Landy, founder of the Consortium of Abortion providers for Planned Parenthood: "An eyeball just fell down into my lap, and that is gross."
Her comment was followed by raucous laughter from the abortionists at the meeting of the National Abortion Federation, where the undercover video was taken.
The video was the work of the Center for Medical Progress, which since 2015 has released more than a dozen videos of abortionists. Most of the videos have been released to the public, but the National Abortion Federation went to court demanding that videos of its members speaking be removed from the Web.
There were other notable comments in the videos.
Ann Schutt-Aine of Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast: "If I'm doing a procedure, and I'm seeing that I'm in fear that it's about to come to the umbilicus, I might ask for a second set of forceps to hold the body at the cervix, and pull off a leg, or two, so it's not PBA (partial-birth abortion)."
Harris again: "Given that we actually see the fetus the same, and given that we might actually both agree that there's violence in here, ask me why I come to work every day. Let's just give them all the violence, it's a person, it's killing, let's just give them all that."
Susan Robinson of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte: "You go in there, and you go, 'am I getting the uterus, or the fetus? Oh good fetus. What have I got. Nothing. Let's try again.'"
Leslie Drummond of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte: "I get a lot of 'oohs' and aahs' from Stemex(press) you know, they're wanting livers. Last week I was in Sacramento and she said, 'I need four intact limbs' and I said 'you want what?'"
Paul Blumenthal, Planned Parenthood of Maryland: "I know Planned Parenthood sells a lot of stuff (fetal organs) to people."
Deb Vanderhei of the Consortium of Abortion Providers: "But the truth is that some might want to do it for, to increase their revenues. And we can't stop them."
