The House this week will consider creating a select panel to investigate abortions, touching on the practices unearthed in a series of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood.
The panel under the Energy and Commerce Committee would be tasked with investigating abortion practices and the handling of and policies for fetal tissue, its cost and how it is obtained, the committee said Tuesday.
“No issue is more deserving of our undivided attention than protecting the dignity of human life,” said Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., vice chairwoman of the committee. “Over the past several weeks we have been asking serious and, frankly, troubling questions about how infant lives are being treated. What our investigation has shown us so far is we have many more questions than we have answers.”
The resolution creating the commitee, expected to pass the Republican-controlled House, touches on a scandal surrounding the women’s health and abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The committee and several others are investigating whether the nonprofit group violated any federal laws regarding profiting off donating fetal tissue from aborted body parts.
The organization has said it did not violate any laws and that any money it received was to cover transportation costs.
The resolution will be considered by the House Rules Committee on Tuesday evening. After that it heads to the House floor, where passage seems likely thanks to the GOP majority.
The moves comes a little less than a week after Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards testified before the House Oversight Committee on the scandal. In addition to that committee, the Energy and Commerce and the House Judiciary committees are investigating the scandal.
