Two House Republicans have asked dozens of Planned Parenthood organizations to say whether their doctors have altered abortion procedures to keep fetal organs intact.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona wrote to 58 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country on Wednesday asking for extensive information on their clinical procedures and standards when performing abortions.
The committee is investigating the women’s health and abortion provider for its involvement in providing aborted fetal tissue to biomedical companies, as a series of recent undercover videos by anti-abortion investigators have shown.
“Recent videos released by the Center for Medical Progress suggest that Planned Parenthood abortion practitioners are altering procedures in order to harvest the organs and body parts of aborted children,” the letter says. “These videos suggest this disturbing practice is more than an isolated instance.”
Planned Parenthood insists it has done nothing illegal and says that only a small handful of its clinics are involved in fetal tissue donations. That hasn’t deterred Republicans, who are trying to strip federal funding from the group, saying it may have illegally profited from the tissue or performed partial-birth abortions in the process of obtaining it.
Goodlatte and Franks asked Planned Parenthood affiliates to answer nine questions, including providing data on how many abortions they perform and at what point in the pregnancy, and specifics about how the procedure is carried out. They also ask the affiliates whether they participate in fetal tissue collections and if so, which companies buy the tissue.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is also investigating Planned Parenthood. A number of states are as well, although several have recently cleared the group of any wrongdoing.
