Democrats Kathy Castor, Gene Green object to Planned Parenthood videos being shown during investigation
A Congressional hearing got aggressive when Democrats objected to the GOP showing portions of the Center for Medical Progress’ (CMP) videos showing Planned Parenthood discussing the alleged sale of fetal body parts and discussing the practices of performing abortions.
As House Energy & Commerce Committee chairman Joe Pitts, R-PA, showed a clip from CMP, Florida Democrat Kathy Castor interrupted, speaking loudly over the video.
“Mr. Chairman, I have to object to this. You don’t have any context for this. What we understand from all of the investigations is that these are manufactured videos, highly edited, selective, and I would object and say you need to run these by the minority so that we can provide some context.”
Democrats then huddled to discuss the showing of the videos before raising the point of order. Pitts ignored the interruption, which caused the Democrats to demand a response. Pitts said that Castor had not raised a point of order, he was going to ignore the complaint.
Democrats did not further interrupt and began criticizing the video as “deceptive” and attacking CMP’s credibility. They also said the videos themselves were edited, despite more than 40 hours of complete interviews and full transcripts placed online by CMP.
One of the clips shown was edited, because CMP spliced an image of a stillborn child into the video to show what children targeted by Planned Parenthood’s fetal harvesting program look like. This was well-known before the hearing, as was the fact that CMP’s videos have been edited to eliminate bathroom breaks and similar inconsequential clips of time.
photo Ivon19 via wikimedia commons
Subcommittee Ranking Member Gene Green, D-TX, said, “Frankly, this is unprecedented what you’ve done. … I think this is a new low for our committee. We can’t question this video.”
Green called the investigators a “shadow” group, citing a committee report showing that the committee’s incomplete investigations had not yet shown that Planned Parenthood committed illegal abortions or illegal fetal harvesting. He said the video contained “doctored evidence … and now it’s been presented by our chair of our committee.”
Oversight Subcommittee Tim Murphy, R-PA, told Green and Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-IL, that the subcommittee’s investigation is not complete.
The subcommittee is in “preliminary” stages of investigation, he said, noting that “some documents have been obtained, others will be sought.”
“It is our shared responsibility to collect the facts and present” sound “information to the U.S. public,” said Murphy. “We simply can’t conclude that there has been no wrongdoing.”
Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest, who testified at the hearing, told Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee that while the 2002 law bans killing babies born after a botched abortion, no punishments are affiliated with the law.
She said that “the burden of proof is on Planned Parenthood” to show that “this is not happening,” especially in light of what she said are examples of babies either being killed or denied care.
Yoest specifically cited Susan B. Anthony List National Campaign Chair and pro-life blogger Jill Stanek as an example of someone who saw a botched abortion lead to a baby being denied care.
h/t and more info at Life Site News
