WASHINGTON, D.C., September 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -The House of Representatives will hold votes on two bills that squeeze Planned Parenthood – and it's all because of undercover videos detailing the group's alleged practice of harvesting and selling fetal organs, a Congressional leader revealed on Friday.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, said that next week the House will vote on “two measures that respond to the horrific videos released throughout the summer on Planned Parenthood practices.”
One of the bills, introduced by Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee, would stop any federal agency from funding Planned Parenthood for one year. The moratorium is intended to give Congress time to conclude its investigation into charges that the abortion industry regularly commits federal felonies related to organ selling.
That bill is a top priority of pro-life organizations. “We endorse and support immediate passage of legislation, including any continuing resolution, so long as it ensures not a single penny of taxpayer dollars goes to Planned Parenthood,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.
The other, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, would add criminal penalties to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act against anyone who does not offer help to a baby born during a botched abortion.
In one video released by the Center for Medical Progress, a Planned Parenthood employee boasts, “we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers.” The CEO of StemExpress confirmed that they receive many “intact” specimens. In another, an organ “procurement manager” recounted how one woman was so close to giving birth that, when she arrived at the abortion facility, the baby “just fell out.”
Live Action also did a series showing that abortionists are unwilling to assist living babies born during botched abortions.
“The American people are rightfully outraged by what was depicted in these videos,” McCarthy said. “These two critical bills will ensure that we get all the facts and protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
The most recent videos also sparked two House committee investigations into Planned Parenthood's “fetal tissue donation” practices, with the Judiciary Committee holding its first hearings earlier this week.
The bills' fate is uncertain in the Senate, where the filibuster, restored when Sen. Mitch McConnell became majority leader, requires 60 votes to advance legislation.
But pro-life groups say the CMP videos, which even Hillary Clinton has called “disturbing,” should make defunding the nation's leading abortion provider an easier – and more popular – task this year.
“We must ensure that no taxpayer funds are sent to an enterprise that has relentlessly increased its commitment to expanding abortion and profiting from the gruesome work of extracting the brains, lungs, livers, thymuses, and other remains of our brothers and sisters before birth,” Dannenfelser said.
