House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke Thursday about a “pro-life generation” to commemorate the one-year anniversary since a series of undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood were released.
“We are the pro-life generation and we have to stand up for these values,” Ryan said in a video released by his office. “Women and babies are not products to be bidded upon for the highest profit. And we won’t rest until this illegal and despicable practice is stopped once and for all.”
Ryan was referring to aborted fetuses, which are supplied by some abortion clinics to biomedical companies, who then sell them to medical researchers. Undercover videos last year from abortion foe David Daleiden highlighted how some Planned Parenthood clinics were involved in providing fetal tissue to a company called StemExpress.
Although Planned Parenthood said it didn’t profit from the tissue, outraged Republicans created a special committee to investigate the practice. The panel issued a mid-year report Thursday morning, the year anniversary from when Daleiden released his first video.
Ryan applauded the panel’s work, noting that it has issued 36 subpoenas to abortion clinics and biomedical companies to investigate whether any are profiting from the tissue, which would be illegal under federal law. Democrats have asked for the panel to be disbanded, saying Republicans are just out to score political points.
“The panel found these weren’t isolated incidents — there’s an entire black market in aborted baby parts,” Ryan said. “And some of it is receiving taxpayer funding.”
The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives plans to issue a full report on its findings by the end of the year.
