In a series of disturbing undercover videos filmed and recently released by The Center for Medical Progress, we learned that Planned Parenthood employees may have adjusted abortion procedures without notifying patients in order to harvest baby parts to sell to the highest bidder. Planned Parenthood performs more than 325,000 abortions a year – that’s equivalent to the entire population of St. Louis. It’s horrifying. The videos show employees with a grave disregard for human life, and Americans deserve better than the cruelty exposed in the undercover videos.
I am working with my colleagues to thoroughly investigate Planned Parenthood’s activities and take action. This week, the House of Representatives passed a bill I sponsored called the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015. Its purpose is to protect hardworking taxpayers’ money from going to such an organization. We issued a subpoena for the entire unedited content of the videos, and held the hearing “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation's Largest Abortion Provider,” where we heard testimony from women who were abortion survivors. In response to our findings, the House passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to make sure that doctors and healthcare practitioners provide care to all children born alive during abortion procedures or be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Planned Parenthood annually receives $528.4 million in tax dollars from hardworking Americans. Missouri has 588 local health centers that provide care and 13 Planned Parenthood locations. That means there are 588 better alternatives for our tax dollars. That money would be better used at local health centers providing genuine care rather than an organization performing gruesome abortions.
