Commentary

On Friday, Speaker John Boehner announced the Republican members of a special select committee charged with investigating Planned Parenthood. The panel will have unique powers to collect documents and subpoena witnesses as it searches for answers to the scandalous trafficking in baby organs and tissue.

The panel will be chaired by Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Boehner offered an accompanying statement:

“Recent videos exposing the abortion-for-baby parts business have shocked the nation, and demanded action. At my request, three House committees have been investigating the abortion business, but we still don’t have the full truth.  Chairman Blackburn and our members will have the resources and the subpoena power to get to the bottom of these horrific practices, and build upon our work to protect the sanctity of all human life.”

In accepting the leadership post, Rep. Blackburn argued that, “No issue is more deserving of our undivided attention than protecting the dignity of human life. This will be a broad based- information gathering – fact finding mission – to answer questions about how we treat and protect life in this country.  This is a discussion that this country must have.  This is a discussion we should not shy away from.”

Among the numerous questions the panel is charged to investigate is the issue of federal funding for tissue and organ procurement. In addition, the committee will look into profit margins, abortion procedures and whether Planned Parenthood is harvesting organs from babies born alive.

In addition to Blackburn, other Republican members of the panel are Joe Pitts (PA), Diane Black (TN), Larry Bucshon (IN), Sean Duffy (WI), Andy Harris (MD), Vicki Hartzler (MO) and Mia Love (UT).

This is extraordinarily important work, and we are hopeful it will produce meaningful reforms at the federal level. In addition to severing our partnership with Planned Parenthood, Congress must overhaul the law and regulations governing tissue donation and harvesting.

It is obvious that we need to recover sound moral standards to govern medical research, particularly when human beings are the subject. Legalized abortion has degraded the sensitivities and collective conscience of this society and a battle must be waged to re-establish proper standards of conduct.  Human beings cannot be treated like so much waste product, to be scrounged through for valuable parts and profit.

Hopefully Congress can help lead the way back through the work of this panel.