Grassley refers Planned Parenthood tissue sales case to FBI, Justice Department

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking federal authorities to investigate and perhaps bring criminal charges against Planned Parenthood and three tissue-specimen companies over improper sales of tissue from aborted fetuses.

The call coincides with the release of a lengthy report compiled by the Republican staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which found the three companies charged prices for fetal tissues in excess of what is allowed by law, and that Planned Parenthood — the women’s health organization and a leading provider of abortion services — refused to take action when it learned of the improper charges.

In a statement, Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said referring the case to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice was necessary because federal authorities have shirked their responsibility to enforce limits on the sale of fetal tissue for decades.

“I don’t take lightly making a criminal referral but the seeming disregard for the law by these entities has been fueled by decades of utter failure by the Justice Department to enforce it,” the Iowa Republican said in a statement. “And, unless there is a renewed commitment by everyone involved against commercializing the trade in aborted fetal body parts for profit, then the problem is likely to continue.”

At issue in the Judiciary Committee report is a 1993 law governing human fetal tissue research that bans buying or selling such tissue — with the narrow exception that suppliers can charge for the cost of transportation, processing, preservation, storage and other costs associated with a transfer.

The law means, in short, that fetal tissues may be transferred for research purposes so long as no one profits from that transfer.

In reviewing transfers from four Planned Parenthood organizations to three specimen companies, however, Grassley’s committee says it has uncovered evidence of profit-making.

The report offers several examples, including one involving California-based specimen company Advanced Bioscience Resources Inc.

In a single day in June 2014, according to the report, Advanced Bioscience Resources obtained four aborted fetuses from a Planned Parenthood clinic for $60 apiece, but sold various body parts and tissue samples from that fetus to customers for prices well in excess of that cost. From those fetus obtained for $240, the company charged its customers a total of $6,825 for 20 separate specimens.

According to the Judiciary Committee finding, the reasonable cost under the law for obtaining and processing the specimens under the federal law should have been just $300.

“It is implausible that the income ABR received can be justified under the categories within the narrow exception to the ban on buying and selling fetal tissue,” the report states. “Without any enforcement of the law, though, there are no consequences for such an improperly broad interpretation.”

Planned Parenthood, the report goes on, initially had policies in place to prevent such improper tissue sales. But when the organization’s national headquarters learned that affiliates were receiving payments from companies in violation of those policies, it did nothing to stop them and instead removed oversight instructions from its organization manual.

“It appears as though PPFA intentionally turned a blind eye after it discovered affiliates had violated the policies it had in place to ensure compliance with the law, and facilitated the continuation of those practices,” the report states.

The case stems from a series of undercover videos released in 2015 that purported to show Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to improper sales of fetal tissues. Those videos have since been discredited as selectively and misleadingly edited.

But although spurred to action by the video’s the Judiciary Committee’s findings are not based on them. The report clarifies that its findings are based on information obtained directly from Planned Parenthood, the specimen companies and government agencies — not the controversial videos.

Democrats and Planned Parenthood, meanwhile, panned the report and Grassley's recommendation.

The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy, issued a statement dismissed the report as just the most recent of several "wasteful and ideological inquiries" into the women's health provider.

"Over a year after Republicans began pouring taxpayer dollars into five separate congressional investigations, there has been no credible finding – including in the Republican Staff Report issued today – that Planned Parenthood broke the law," Leahy said in the Tuesday statement, adding, "The Republican Staff Report issued today has never been voted on or adopted by the Senate Judiciary Committee as an official report.Republicans should abandon their attacks on Planned Parenthood and instead focus on efforts that truly protect women’s health."

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said the organization "strongly disagrees" with the recommendation for investigation and criminal charges.

"Investigations by three other Congressional committees, and investigations in thirteen states including a Grand Jury in Texas, have shown, Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong,” said Dana Singiser, the group's vice president of governmental affairs, in a statement Tuesday night.