A Congressional panel has hit out at Planned Parenthood in a report highlighting abuses and possibly criminal violations in the foetal tissue trade between abortion clinics and tissue harvesters.
Members of the panel called for changes within the industries to protest women and unborn children.
The Catholic News Agency (CNS) quoted Republican representative Marsha Blackburn, the chair of the House Select Investigative Panel as saying upon release of the panel's final report: "It is my hope that our recommendations will result in some necessary changes within both the abortion and foetal tissue procurement industries."
She added: "Our hope is that these changes will both protect women and their unborn children, as well as the integrity of scientific research."
The investigative panel released its 471-page final report yesterday, weeks after Democrats on the panel put out their own 112-page report claiming that Planned Parenthood was not guilty of any wrongdoing. The Democrats added that the panel's investigations into the foetal tissue trade were actively hindering positive benefits from research conducted on foetal tissue.
The new report comes after the investigative group Center for Medical Progress released a series of undercover interviews in the summer of 2015 conducted with high-ranking Planned Parenthood officials as well as current and former members of tissue procurement companies.
In the vidoes, Planned Parenthood officials discussed clinics' roles in the transfer of the foetal tissue of aborted babies to tissue companies for reimbursement.
Congress subsequently launched investigations to see if laws had been broken by tissue companies or abortion clinics, amid calls by some Republicans for Planned Parenthood to have its federal funds cut off.
Under US law, foetal tissue may be used for purposes such as medical research but in abortions it must be obtained with the consent of the mother. It may not be transferred for "valuable consideration" but only for "reasonable" compensation for costs like operating and transfer, CNS explained.
The panel has made over a dozen criminal and regulatory referrals.
According to CNA, Planned Parenthood for America officials admitted to not following the organisation's own internal procedures on foetal tissue transactions, as well as on abortionists confirming that they had not illegally altered the abortion procedure for harvesters to obtain intact tissue more easily.
One of the panel's hearings "revealed substantial concern about the consent process for the donation of human foetal tissue used by abortion clinics and tissue procurement businesses (TPBs)", the report said. "Evidence revealed that self-interested staff, whose pay depends on the numbers of specimens donated, were assigned to obtain consent from patients."
Further, the panel found alleged violations of privacy in transactions between abortion clinics and tissue procurement companies.
Meanwhile, the University of New Mexico allegedly developed a relationship with a nearby abortion clinic that could have violated federal and state laws, according to the panel.
Foetal tissue from the clinic, Southwestern Women's Options, was said to be provided to the university for research while students and fellows were performing abortions at the clinic.
Abortionists at the clinic were reportedly given "volunteer faculty" status at the university where they received benefits such as insurance coverage and access to school facilities, yet did not have to teach classes.
The report said that this was "giving their relationship the components of an exchange of foetal tissue for valuable consideration".
It added that "the close relationship" enabled various alleged abuses to occur, such as "allegations of shoddy clinical practices, including failure to utilise a consent form for fetal tissue donation and improperly combining consent for tissue donation with consent for the underlying abortion procedure".
