Almost all liberal lawmakers in the House signed a recent letter calling for the disbandment of a congressional panel investigating abortion providers, The Hill reports (Ferris, The Hill, 5/24).
Committee actions
The subcommittee was created following the release of a series of misleading videos targeting Planned Parenthood. The subcommittee is the fourth panel in the House to investigate the organization.
The subcommittee is allowed to probe, among other topics, federal funding for health care providers who also provide abortion services and providers' practices for abortions later in pregnancy. The resolution (H Res 461) that created the subcommittee gave it the ability to investigate "medical procedures and business practices used by entities involved in fetal tissue procurement" and "any other relevant matters with respect to fetal tissue procurement."
The subcommittee has issued several subpoenas requesting the names of fetal tissue researchers, spurring criticism from medical groups and liberal lawmakers who are concerned that the subpoenas could put researchers, students and medical professionals at risk of antiabortion-rights violence. Many groups responding to the subpoenas have submitted redacted documents to protect individuals' names and other identifying information amid concerns they could be targeted by abortion-rights opponents.
Last month, conservative members of the panel presented a report alleging that an unidentified abortion provider and an unidentified tissue procurement company had violated federal bans on the sale of fetal tissue. In response to the allegations, attorneys for the company, StemExpress, in a letter wrote that at least one of the screenshots in the report that captures an internal page on the company's website appears to have been obtained illegally. The company also noted that some of the materials in the report likely were obtained by David Daleiden, the founder of the antiabortion-rights group behind the videos. Attorneys for the company stated that some of the documents include "gross inaccuracies."
Earlier this month, liberal lawmakers in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) raised concerns about the investigation, calling the subcommittee's tactics "a serious abuse of congressional power" (Women's Health Policy Report, 5/18).
New call for disbandment
In the most recent letter, 178 of the 188 liberal lawmakers in the House called on Ryan to disband the panel.
The lawmakers lambasted the subcommittee for "continued, escalating abuses" that could threaten the safety of abortion providers, patients and medical researchers.
In addition, the lawmakers criticized subcommittee Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), for pushing universities and abortion clinics to disclose the identities of those involved with fetal tissue research or abortion care, despite lacking any "legitimate congressional reason" to do so. The letter explains that several individuals contacted by the subcommittee "have expressed fear for their safety if identified in connection with this investigation, with some repeatedly described by (Blackburn) and other [conservative lawmakers] in misleading and inflammatory terms."
Liberal lawmakers listed several concerning actions by the subcommittee, including publicly identifying an abortion provider at a Maryland clinic before attempting to contact the individual or determining wrongdoing. Further, according to liberal lawmakers, the leading conservative lawmakers violated House rules when they subpoenaed 19 individuals, 17 of whom were not first granted the option of responding of their own volition. Liberal lawmakers also noted that conservative members of the subcommittee did not share a list of the individuals they planned on subpoenaing (The Hill, 5/24).
