Panel issues subpoenas in aborted baby body parts investigation

The chair of a U.S. House investigative panel has announced that they have issued subpoenas to obtain documents regarding the possible sale of aborted baby body parts. The investigation follows a 2015 University of New Mexico (UNM) research study obtained by New Mexico Alliance for Life (NMAFL) which detailed “how aborted baby liver and kidney tissue [was] harvested from ‘six fetuses,’ only 15 minutes after the abortion procedure.”

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)who chairs the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, said the panel plans to subpoena the University New Mexico (UNM) and the late term abortion facility South Western Options (SWO). The Panel, which consists of both Republican as well as Democrat members, falls under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and has been tasked to gather information and get the facts about medical practices of abortion service providers and the business practices of the procurement organizations who sell baby body parts, according to their website.

Rep. Blackburn’s office told Live Action News that the Majority Staff of the Select Investigative Panel has sent more than 30 letters requesting documents. Those letters all asked for information to be provided voluntarily.

“By failing to fully cooperate with our investigation, these organizations have compelled our panel to subpoena these documents in order to acquire information that is vital to the completion of our work,” Chairman Blackburn stated.

“Without these subpoenas, the American people and the House itself would be left to speculate about what is going on in the fetal tissue industry. We cannot leave questions unanswered,” she added.

As Live Action News has previously reported, SWO is located in Albuquerque and operated by abortionist Curtis Boyd, who served as a UNM “assistant professor” and has been working with UMN for ten years. UNM’s health science center (UNMHSC) which reportedly used the fetal tissue for their research recently halted a training program using abortionists from SWO.

via prolifewitness.org

According to a consent form obtained by local pro-lifer Tara Shaver, the remains of babies aborted at Southwestern Women’s Options, are automatically used in research. “Since the “consent” for research is buried in the same consent form for the abortion, it is doubtful many women even realize their babies are being turned into fodder for laboratory experimentation,” reports Operation Rescue which investigates abortion clinic nationwide.

In January, the New Mexico Alliance for Life obtained a letter which they say confirmed that abortionist Boyd “facilitates” the, “collection of aborted baby body parts such as hearts, lungs, heads, livers, aortas, brain tissue, etc. from his late-term abortion clinic to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center.”

The letter read in part:

“I have reviewed and been kept up to date on your research and feel that the use of fetal tissue continues to be appropriate for your studies. Therefore I will continue to facilitate your collection of samples from my clinic. following the usual inspection of the tissue…”

Boyd, who once admitted that he is “killing” states on his website, that he was involved in establishing the National Abortion Federation (NAF) and is a founding member of the Federation’s Board of Directors.

NAF is seeking a permanent gag order against the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) whose undercover investigation exposed how the abortion industry haggles over the prices of the babies they abort. The abortion provider organization is seeking to prevent the release of footage from their annual conferences in 2014 and 2015, claiming fraud. A recently released tape, by CMP appears to show an alliances between the National Abortion Federation, Planned Parenthood, and abortion providers in regards to fetal tissue procurement.

Cassy Fiano, of Live Action News reviewed the tape and reported that in the video, NAF’s training and education coordinator, Sandy Fulkerson, floats the idea of a “group purchasing program” offered through NAF membership, where participating abortion facilities would supply aborted fetal tissue to buyers, and then split the profits. Fulkerson admits the abortion group “knows somewhere” where large quantities of fetal tissue are “available.” Another NAF supporter then chimes in that the financial rewards are a “win-win” for both parties, Fiano writes.

In addition to SWO and UNM, the panel has also issued a subpoena to obtain documents from StemExpress, (the infamous fetal parts procurement company exposed in CMP’s videos), for failing to dully cooperate with document requests. CMP videos show the biotech company’s CEO, Cate Dyer, boasting, “I have a picture from Hillary” Clinton on her desk. In another video, she jokes about shipping the fully intact bodies of aborted babies to unsuspecting lab technicians.

Last year, House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders sent a letter to StemExpress requesting briefings and information regarding their practices relating to human fetal tissue collection, sale, and/or donation. When asked why the Select Investigative Panel issued the subpoena against Stem Express, Chairman Blackburn told Live Action News:

“StemExpress brought the subpoena upon themselves by redacting critical information.”

Read the subpoenas that were sent to StemExpress, University of New Mexico, and Southwestern Women’s Options.