With all eyes on President-elect Donald Trump's forming cabinet, you may have missed a major development in the Planned Parenthood undercover video scandal. On Thursday, the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel decided to refer the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to the Texas attorney general for criminal prosecution due to its selling of aborted baby parts.
In the summer of 2015, the Center for Medical Progress unveiled its undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood's trafficking of baby organs. At one particular site, the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston, Texas, the undercover actors found that employees were hiding their sale of fetal issue by using "accounting gimmicks."
“The evidence that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast charged exorbitant amounts of taxpayer money in exchange for fetal specimens that it provided at nearly zero cost is overwhelming,” CMP President David Daleiden said at the time, urging Texas leaders to send a message that Houston's children are "not for sale."
They got the message - and so did Congress. After the Select Investigative Panel's investigation, they felt compelled to refer Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast for criminal prosecution.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins believes the panel has taken the first concrete step to holding Planned Parenthood accountable for its grave actions.
"The panel's recommendation that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast be criminally prosecuted is the appropriate next step in bringing justice to bear on a group that clearly sees itself as above the law.
Next step: defunding.
"With criminal prosecution a growing possibility, the new Congress should once again use the reconciliation process to redirect taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood," Perkins urged.