5 Religious Liberty and Right to Life Issues to Watch in 2018
Department of Justice Investigates Planned Parenthood
In December, the Justice Department opened an investigation into the largest abortion provider in the United States, Planned Parenthood, as a result of findings from a Congressional investigation into its financial dealings with biotech firms over fetal body parts procured during abortion procedures.
Despite undercover videos from a 2015 investigation by the Center for Medical Progress suggesting otherwise, Planned Parenthood insisted that it followed the law and made no money from fetal tissue donated during abortions and that any financial reimbursements it received were for transport expenses and handling costs.
Pro-life advocacy groups have long contended that the abortion giant, which receives hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants each year, be defunded. The closest Congress ever came to doing so was as part of a provision in the attempted repeal of Obamacare last summer, an effort which ultimately failed due to the Senate's failure to secure sufficient Republican votes.
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Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said in December 2016 that enough evidence was discovered showing how abortion providers had transferred the fetal body parts from aborted fetuses for research by charging amounts higher than they actually cost, according to Fox News.
"The report documents the failure of the Department of Justice, across multiple administrations, to enforce the law that bans the buying and selling of human fetal tissue," Grassley wrote in a letter, arguing the Justice Department and FBI should investigate.
"It also documents substantial evidence suggesting that the specific entities involved in the recent controversy, and/or individuals employed by those entities, may have violated that law."
