Mitch Perry
In the wake of the latest controversy involving Planned Parenthood, Marco Rubio has joined 49 of his Senate colleagues in urging Department of Health and Human Services Secretary (DHHS) Sylvia Burwell to cooperate with ongoing and future investigations into the “legal, ethical, and policy issues” raised by recent footage unearthed by an anti-abortion group. The videos depict Planned Parenthood Federation of America executives discussing in explicit detail the organization’s role in the harvesting of the organs of unborn babies.
“The videos speak for themselves,” Rubio said in a prepared statement. “The cruel and callous language used by senior Planned Parenthood officials is sickening, shows a complete disregard for innocent unborn life, not to mention Planned Parenthood’s clients, and speaks to an organization that is morally bankrupt. There is simply no justification for an organization that fosters this kind of culture to receive a penny of taxpayer funding, and there should be a serious and impartial investigation into the grotesque practices revealed by the video.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said her department will review all information surrounding the videos taken by the Center for Medical Progress, the group that produced the videos. The group claims it shows Planned Parenthood illegally profiting from the sale of fetal organs.
Lynch made those comments after 11 GOP senators sent a letter to the Department of Justice requesting an investigation.
A total of 50 U.S. senators signed the letter to DHHS Secretary Burwell, 49 of them Republicans. The lone Democrat was West Virginia’s Joe Manchin.
“The footage raises a number of questions about the practices of the organization, including whether they are in compliance with federal laws regulating both the use of fetal tissue and partial-birth abortions,” the senators wrote in the letter. “In addition to questions about Planned Parenthood’s compliance with applicable federal law and medical ethics, we believe the footage prompts important policy questions surrounding the issue of abortions permitted so late in a pregnancy – sometimes even later than 5 months – that an unborn baby’s organs can be identified and harvested.”
The senators are also requested that the secretary confirm the commencement or immediate initiation of “a thorough internal review of the compliance of the Department and Planned Parenthood – one of the Department’s grantees – with all relevant and applicable federal statutes, regulations, and other requirements.”
A video released last week featured a doctor from Planned Parenthood discussing in frank terms the process of preserving fetal organs such as livers, lungs and “intact” hearts for research.
Then on Tuesday a second video was released. That showed Mary Gatter, a Planned Parenthood official, apparently negotiating the price of selling fetal tissue for medical research.
Planned Parenthood has responded that the videos are heavily edited and that the officials in the videos are looking for compensation for expenses, not profit.
In his statement, Rubio notes that one of his first actions in the Senate was voting to stop funding Planned Parenthood.
