House Speaker John Boehner’s health policy director is closely connected to the founder and CEO of StemExpress, the private company that buys aborted fetal organs and tissue from Planned Parenthood.
Boehner’s health policy director, Charlotte Ivancic, is the older sister of Cate Dyer, the founder of California-based Stem Express.
Stem Express, the buyer of Planned Parenthood’s fetal organs, is at the heart of the undercover video scandals — in the first video, its website and fetal organ order form are shown, and in the third undercover video released, a former technician for StemExpress says the company does “a huge trafficking in fetal tissues” and is “a pretty sick company.” The former employee says Cate Dyer, the president and founder of Stem Express makes “a lot of money.”
In a fourth undercover video by the Center for Medical Progress, currently blocked from release by a California court, StemExpress executives admit that “they sometimes get fully intact fetuses shipped to their laboratory” from the Planned Parenthood abortion clinics that supply them, according to the video maker, which could be prima facie evidence of a crime.
StemExpress is a “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to biomedical researchers,” according to its website. In a now-removed portion of the site, the company provided an order form for fetal body parts, specifying the organs or tissues desired and the gestational age.
A flyer for the company advertises the financial benefits to Planned Parenthood of a partnership with StemExpress. “By partnering with StemExpress, not only are you offering a way for your clients to participate in the unique opportunity to facilitate life-saving research, but you will also be contributing to the fiscal growth of your own clinic,” reads the flyer. “The stem cell rich blood and raw materials that are usually discarded during obstetrical procedures can, instead, be expedited through StemExpress to research laboratories with complete professionalism and source anonymity.”
StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer’s sister, Charlotte Invancic, distinguished herself in May as “The Boehner Staffer Who Got the ‘Doc Fix’ Done,” according to a National Journal article that touted her work negotiating a bipartisan Medicare fix with Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
In the Journal article, Boehner’s chief of staff Mike Sommers praised Invacic’s political skill. “I knew going in she was probably one of the best healthcare minds on Capitol Hill,” said Mike Sommers, Boehner’s chief of staff. “What I didn’t fully appreciate was her political skill. She also has the capacity to evaluate the political scenarios around the deal. I think that’s what makes her invaluable to the speaker.”
Invacic came to the Hill after she studied health law at Boston University and worked as a laboratory administrator in Children’s Hospital Boston’s tissue-engineering department after college. “Her first Hill job was in the office of then-Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina,” reports the Journal. She eventually moved to Rep. Paul Ryan’s team, until she joined Boehner two years ago.
For his part, Boehner said he thought he’d “vomit trying to talk about” the first video, which shows Planned Parenthood executive Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing where she can best “crush” a fetus to preserve organs for sale. “It’s disgusting,” said the House speaker. He ordered an investigation into Planned Parenthood.
