The chair of the House Select Panel on Infant Lives, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, has been unrelenting in uncovering the truth about the practice of profiting from the sale of fetal parts.
The latest action of her committee is the issuance of subpoenas to two financial organizations: Scinto Group, LLP and Five Star Bancorp, who hold financial records for the fetal procurement agency StemExpress. StemExpress continues to ignore Congressional subpoenas, so Rep. Blackburn and her committee are now working around the fetal tissue procurement business.
StemExpress’s blatant disregard toward its subpoenas caused the panel to take this back road to get the records it needs from the financial companies, even while continuing its quest into StemExpress directly. This week, Rep. Blackburn wrote a letter to StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer in which she demanded Dyer honor the subpoenas and produce all the requested documents:
Over the last several months, we have made numerous attempts to acquire business and accounting documents from StemExpress that are necessary to complete our work at the Select Investigative Panel. All of these requests have been met with verbal and written objections from your attorneys.
And those financial records hold the key, the Panel believes. Chairman Blackburn said Thursday:
In light of the advice we received from witnesses at our hearing last month, these subpoenas are necessary in order for the Select Investigative Panel to complete a full review of StemExpress’ accounting records. Documents uncovered by our investigation so far point to the very troubling possibility that StemExpress may have violated federal law by profiting from the sale of baby body parts. We have learned that not only is this investigation warranted, but further examination of accounting records is needed to get the complete facts about what was actually going on.
It’s clear that the costs and accounting connected to fetal procurement have significance. Recently, House Select Panel documents showed that Planned Parenthood likely was profiting from of the sale of fetal parts.
And when a baby’s brain retails for over $3,000, it’s not a stretch to see why StemExpress may have something to hide in its financial records; however, StemExpress isn’t the only one who holds its financial records, and these new subpoenas will likely provide some answers.
The Panel has shown it will not back down until its investigation is complete. Perhaps the fetal procurement agency will not honor Congressional subpoenas, but it is more likely that banks and financial organizations that have nothing to hide in their own business practices will comply with the law.
One thing is clear, Rep. Blackburn is showing no signs of backing down as the business of fetal body parts trafficking continues to be exposed to the light of day.
Click here to read the subpoena that was sent to Scinto Group, LLP, and here to read the subpoena sent to Five Star Bancorp.
