WIBW - Calls for Hearings Following Undercover Planned Parenthood Video

Statement

By Eugene Scott and Greg Palmer

Republican leaders on the Hill -- including the Speaker of the House -- are expressing outrage and calling for hearings to investigate the abortion practices of Planned Parenthood following a video that went viral Tuesday.

Kansas Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins is calling for action.

"The idea of making money from the sale of the tissue of an unborn baby is unconscionable," said Congresswoman Jenkins. "Yet this horrific and heart wrenching practice was apparently treated as normal business in this appalling video. The practices discussed by a senior official from the central office of Planned Parenthood are clearly illegal and morally unjust. I sent a letter to Attorney General Lynch to immediately investigate these actions, and demand that criminal charges be brought against this sick violation of the law. It is now up to President Obama and HHS Secretary Burwell to stand up, denounce, and halt these disturbing practices. Life is too precious to be treated as a commodity."

Kansas Congressman Huelskamp spoke against what he described as the barbaric practice of fetal tissue trafficking and "Now we must urgently act again. Abortion giant, Planned Parenthood, has exposed itself as a perpetuator of another shocking form of trafficking -- the illegal selling and buying of baby body parts and intact organs. Planned Parenthood should not be allowed to profit off the death of its abortion victims by selling their organs to the highest bidder."

House Speaker John Boehner, a devout Catholic, called for hearings on the Planned Parenthood's abortion practices and asked President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to denounce them.WIBW - Calls for Hearings Following Undercover Planned Parenthood vi

"When anyone diminishes an unborn child, we are all hurt, irreversibly so. When an organization monetizes an unborn child -- and with the cavalier attitude portrayed in this horrific video -- we must all act," he said.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy also called for House committees to investigate the group a provider of reproductive health services and education, is the country's largest abortion provider.

The pro-life advocate called the practices in the video where a top Planned Parenthood official discusses performing an abortion in a way that preserves the lungs, heart and liver "inhumane."

"I speak for all of my colleagues when I say I was deeply disturbed by reports and video of an organization engaging in such grotesque and inhumane practices," he said. "I will be working with House Committees to investigate the claims made by the employee. We should all agree that no life is expendable, and our society has no place for such callous indifference to life."

An anti-abortion group released the controversial video Tuesday showing a top Planned Parenthood official discussing the body parts of aborted fetuses. The group -- Center for Medical Progress -- says the video proves that Planned Parenthood sells organs and tissues, a practice that it is illegal under federal law.

Planned Parenthood says the Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, discussed prices because of transportation costs to participate in the organization's tissue donation program.

Multiple presidential candidates have spoken out against the video since it was posted Tuesday morning.

Source