House panel refers Planned Parenthood for criminal prosecution over sales of aborted baby parts

The U.S. House of Representatives Select Panel on Infant Lives announced on Thursday that it has issued a list of nine criminal and regulatory referrals against Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses over the alleged trafficking of aborted baby parts.

The panel was formed in October 2015 to investigate the allegations after the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released a series of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials negotiating the prices for aborted baby tissue and organs, Life News reported.

The fact sheet released by the panel stated: "It was discovered that Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast broke the law when it sold aborted baby remains for profit to the University of Texas. Operation Rescue's Texas attorney, Briscoe Cain, received evidence of this illegal conduct through a FOIA request and referred the evidence on to investigators."

It noted that the Select Panel has referred the case to the Texas Attorney General.

LifeSite reported that the panel also referred two medical research companies, namely StemExpress and DV Biologics, for criminal prosecution for their part in trafficking fetal body parts. The University of New Mexico, Advanced Bioscience Resources, a university in Ohio, an abortion facility in Arkansas, and the Presidential Women's Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, were also referred to law enforcement by the panel.

The House also approved additional funding for the panel to continue the inquiry. The panel will receive $800,000 in addition to the $790,000 that it has already spent in the investigation, according to Quartz.

In response to the panel's decision, CMP founder David Daleiden said: "The Select Panel is the only official, comprehensive, nationwide investigation of Planned Parenthood's harvesting and sale of aborted fetal organs, and their findings confirm the criminal activity at Planned Parenthood that CMP's videos documented and show that the wrongdoing goes even deeper than anyone first suspected."

Daleiden urged law enforcement and elected officials to "act quickly to bring Planned Parenthood to justice" in order to prevent more taxpayer money from funding the organization.