Democrats on a special panel investigating fetal tissue have issued a scathing report on the Republicans’ handling of the committee over the past year.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky and five other Democratic members charge that Republicans wasted $1.5 million on an investigation that was conducted in a partisan and improper manner, and never revealed misdoing by Planned Parenthood, human tissue companies or research institutions, despite GOP claims to the contrary.
Republicans created the Select Panel on Infant Lives late last year after abortion foe David Daleiden’s undercover videos showed how some Planned Parenthood clinics supplied aborted fetal tissue for medical research. They have said they want to find out whether the clinics or their buyers profited from the tissue, which would be illegal.
“Adopting McCarthy-era tactics to demand names and bully witnesses, panel Republicans have conducted an end-to-end attack on fetal tissue donation and women’s health care,” the Democratic report says. “Operating largely out of public view, they have abused congressional authority and made repeated inflammatory claims of criminal misconduct in continued reliance on the discredited Daleiden/CMP videos and without any actual evidence of wrongdoing.”
Last week, the GOP-led panel said it has recommended that authorities prosecute a number of abortion clinics and biomedical companies. Republicans are expected to release a final report by the end of the month, before the panel disbands.
The report from Democrats, who asked throughout the year for the panel to be discontinued, contains 14 findings they say discredit the allegations by Republicans. It says there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood clinics or tissue procurement organizations profited off the tissue.
Schakowsky also said there’s evidence the panel’s work has harmed medical research by discouraging clinical trials and studies using fetal tissue.
“This purely partisan witch hunt against researchers and doctors has caused affirmative harm,” she said.
