Republicans and Democrats brawled Wednesday morning over GOP efforts to subpoena the names of graduate students and researchers as part of their investigation into Planned Parenthood.
The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives opened with its first hearing on Wednesday, focusing on the issue of bioethics and fetal tissue research. But before the panel could get to the hearing, Democrats and Republicans bickered over the GOP subpoenas, and Democrats argued the Republican effort was just a partisan witch hunt that had no bearing on the investigation.
“To date, you have refused to explain how this information is pertinent to the investigation,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who said that Republicans didn’t alert Democrats per House rules about the subpoenas.
“There is no apparent reason for this, other than harassment and intimidation,” added Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., the committee’s ranking member.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the committee chair, said that she told the ranking member about the subpoenas and reaffirmed the panel’s authority to dole out subpoenas. “The requirements have been met,” she responded to Nadler.
Republicans say the subpoenas are needed because research institutes haven’t responded to congressional requests for documents, but Democrats say the only thing that was held back was the names of students and researchers.
The hearing is in response to a series of undercover videos that detail Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and donation of aborted fetal body parts. The sale of such parts is illegal, but Planned Parenthood claims it did not profit from the sales, and only recovered costs for transportation.
However, Republicans said that the matter demands investigating.
“The weak, the vulnerable, those with no voice — harvest and sold — there is something going on, something that deserves investigating,” said Blackburn in her opening remarks.
Democrats disagreed, saying that the committee should be disbanded as there have been no findings that Planned Parenthood violated the law, citing various investigations in several states and House committees.
“Indeed, the only criminal acts uncovered in the course of these investigations has been those of anti-abortion extremist David Daleiden, who is now under indictment in Texas for his role in manufacturing the deceptively-edited videos,” Schakowsky said.
