House committee chairman: Planned Parenthood probe protects taxpayers from funding 'horrors'

WASHINGTON — Opening long-awaited congressional hearings, a top Republican said Wednesday an investigation of Planned Parenthood was intended to protect taxpayers from the kind of "horrors" suggested by secretly recorded videos of group officials discussing the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses.

In a session highlighted by partisan clashes, Democrats said the investigation by the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee was just the latest in a decades-long effort to curtail abortion rights and was based on deceptively edited videos that show no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.

"The goal here is to smear Planned Parenthood," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. Referring to infamous 1950s hearings that featured unfounded allegations that some federal officials were communists, Nadler added, "Sen. Joseph McCarthy would be proud of this committee today."

Two months ago, a small group of anti-abortion activists began releasing videos it furtively recorded. Republicans and conservatives say those videos show Planned Parenthood was illegally selling fetal tissue for profit and violating other federal prohibitions.

Planned Parenthood and its Democratic defenders say there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

Representatives from Planned Parenthood and the Center for Medical Progress, which made the videos, did not testify.

Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said comments by Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that the videos were "disturbing" undermine assertions that the investigation is inappropriate.

Goodlatte said Planned Parenthood "is granted huge amounts of federal funds" and Congress must "do what we can to ensure federal taxpayers are not contributing to the sorts of horrors reflected in the undercover videos."

Planned Parenthood provides contraception, tests for sexually transmitted diseases and abortions in clinics across the country. It receives more than $500 million each year from federal and state governments, more than one-third of its overall $1.3 billion annual budget.

Numerous Republicans want to end federal payments to Planned Parenthood. Democrats have blocked a Senate effort to do that, and GOP leaders are hoping to head off conservatives demanding that Congress not fund federal agencies starting Oct. 1 unless Planned Parenthood's money is terminated — a move that would shut down the government.

In a closed meeting of House Republicans, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, expressed support for tightening legal curbs on fetal tissue sales and cutting off Planned Parenthood's money, said one Republican who described the private session on condition of anonymity.

Boehner said Planned Parenthood could continue fetal tissue sales even if its federal money was blocked, and he expressed concern that a shutdown would damage the anti-abortion cause, the Republican said.

Wednesday's hearing was called to examine the federal laws that address fetal tissue research. But debate quickly expanded to views on abortion, an issue that has sharply divided the two parties. Until the videos were released, it was not expected to surface as a prominent issue in next year's presidential and congressional elections.

Goodlatte described the tearing apart of a fetus during an abortion and asked witness Priscilla Smith, who directs Yale Law School's Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice, if she considered that humane. Smith defended the procedure when used on a fetus that was not viable.

"Your idea of humanity and mine are very different," Goodlatte said.

Melissa Ohden, who says she survived a 1977 attempt to abort her, told lawmakers that she would "never, ever forget" the videos showing one Planned Parenthood official, while dining, discussing abortions and fetal tissue donations.

Democrats were angered by what they called the one-sidedness of the hearing and Republicans' attacks on Planned Parenthood.

"Surely, the Congress has better things to do than spend its time helping to undermine an organization that provides vital health services," said Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the panel's top Democrat.

James Bopp Jr., general counsel for National Right to Life, told lawmakers that the videos show that Planned Parenthood "violates various federal laws," including the prohibition on profiting from fetal tissue sales.

One comment on the videos he cited came from Dr. Mary Gatter, a regional Planned Parenthood medical director in California. While talking with abortion opponents posing as private tissue buyers, Gatter said, "In negotiations, the person who throws out the figure first is at a loss, right?"

Yale's Smith said "there is simply no evidence in these misleadingly edited videos of a violation" of statutes. She said the conversations were actually unsuccessful attempts by the Center for Medical Progress to "entrap" Planned Parenthood officials into illegally selling tissue for profit.

Separately, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — one of three other panels conducting probes — said their investigation has so far unearthed no evidence of wrongdoing. Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., said the Democrats' statement was premature and "confirms that Planned Parenthood supporters are terrified."