The chair of a U.S. House investigative panel has announced 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 issued the subpoenas Tuesday. They went out to UNM and the late term abortion facility South Western Options (SWO). The Panel, which includes Republicans and Democrats, has been tasked with getting the facts about the medical practices of abortion providers. They must also gather information on the business practices of the procurement organizations who sell baby body parts.
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 (pictured at the top of the article). Boyd served as a UNM “assistant professor” and has been working with UMN for ten years. UNM’s health science center which reportedly used the fetal tissue for their research recently halted a training program using abortionists from SWO.
SWO consent form, 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 – an organization that 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. NAF is seeking to prevent the release of footage from their annual conferences in 2014 and 2015. A recently released tape by CMP appears to show an alliance between NAF, Planned Parenthood, and abortion providers in regards to fetal tissue procurement.
Live Action News’ Cassy Fiano 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. In this program, 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 Congressional 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 fully cooperate with document requests. In one video, StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer jokes about shipping the fully intact bodies – heads included – 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.”
You can read the subpoenas that were sent to StemExpress, University of New Mexico, and Southwestern Women’s Options.
