Various Colorado officials have refused to investigate Planned Parenthood, but GOP lawmakers aren’t giving up.
Despite being against abortion, the state Attorney General, Cynthia Coffman, said she won’t investigate Planned Parenthood. She defended her move by saying that the final decision is with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).
The department told local news stations that they too have decided not to investigate Planned Parenthood. The reason given concerns Congressional investigations already underway.
Gov. John Hickenlooper also refused an investigation. This is despite how several other states have launched such investigations.
Where the governor and departments won’t act though, GOP lawmakers have sought to do so. The Colorado Statesman reported that 30 lawmakers, led by Rep. Dan Nordberg, have called on Dr. Larry Wolk, the head of the CDPHE, to investigate.
The lawmakers sent a letter, which calls Planned Parenthood actions “barbaric, unethical and potentially illegal” and points out that the sale of fetal tissue is illegal under federal as well as state law.
In closing the letter reads:
Lawmakers are not the only ones who have called for investigations. Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group sent letters and issued press releases on the matter.
“No state in America has more reason to investigate Planned Parenthood than Colorado,” Michael Norton, who is senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told 9News.com. He also called the fetal parts business “the barbaric haggling over heads, livers, hearts and lungs of aborted babies.”
One of the undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress focused on Dr. Savita Ginde and the abortion facility where she is the vice president and medical director. This facility, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, is right in Denver.
It will remain to be seen whether the Republicans’ letter will have an effect.
