DOJ, FBI looking into possible criminal probe of Planned Parenthood

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WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The U.S. attorney general is confirming a Senate investigation into Planned Parenthood can lead to charges for trafficking aborted baby body parts.

On November 14, Jeff Sessions, the U.S. attorney general, was asked by the Senate Judiciary Committee if Planned Parenthood (PPFA) and several human tissue procurement companies may face charges.

In October, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation requested nearly 30,000 unredacted documents from PPFA and others that had been handed over to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sessions answered, "It depends on the substance of those congressional findings, but they certainly can provide a basis for starting an investigation," adding, "Verifying the findings of the Congress could provide a basis for charges."

Both the U.S. House and Senate have conducted independent investigations into dealings between PPFA and various tissue acquisition companies.

In January 2017, the U.S. House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives published a report after a year-long investigation, outlining a long list of federal and state laws broken by (PPFA) and human tissue procurement companies in California, Ohio and Arkansas.

It concludes doctors, executives and other staff members of Advanced Bioscience Resources, DaVinci Biologics and StemExpress conspired with PPFA executives to illegally sell aborted baby parts.

Even before the House report came out, a Senate panel headed by Sen. Chuck Grassley charged Obama Administration officials in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In December 2016, Grassley issued a letter to then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI director James Comey. He chided them specifically and the DOJ in general for "the failure of the Department of Justice, across multiple administrations, to enforce the law that bans the buying or selling of human fetal tissue with even a single prosecution."

The Senate's own investigation and subsequent report into the dealings between PPFA and the tissue companies declare:

[C]ompanies have charged thousands of dollars for specimens removed from a single aborted fetus; they have claimed the fees they charged only recovered acceptable costs when they had not, in fact, conducted any analysis of their costs when setting the fees; and their post hoc accounting rationalizations invoked a bevy of indirect and tenuously related costs in an attempt to justify their fees.

It criticized the DOJ, noting it "has failed to indict any of the parties involved" and goes on to say, "There has been substantial evidence that the executive branch agencies involved have failed to monitor the industry and failed to actively investigate potential criminal violations."

In July 2015, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released a series of undercover videos showing members of PPFA and medical research companies conspiring in the illegal sale of aborted baby parts.

The most recent video, released on November 14, features an interview with Holly O'Donnell, a former procurement technician for Stem Express where she reveals how Stem Express employees were put under massive pressure and offered bonuses to harvest organs from aborted babies.

O'Donnell also reveals that at some California Planned Parenthood locations Stem Express employees were behind the scenes rummaging through the corpses of unborn babies for the most profitable body parts.

She notes that afterward, Stem Express would pay PPFA for the most useful body parts.

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