Democrats squawk at investigation of Planned Parenthood

Angry Democrats are lashing out against Republicans in congress over the investigation of Planned Parenthood and how it handles federal funding.

WASHINGTON D.C. (Catholic Online) - Republican lawmakers tried to defund Planned Parenthood earlier this year, but that effort was defeated. Following that, Americans United for Life (AUL) issued a 30-page report that accused Planned Parenthood of misspending federal funds, failing to report child sex abuse, assisting sex traffickers, and a wide range of other illicit activities. AUL called upon congress to launch an investigation.

Rep. Cliff Stearns, (R-FL) who is a pro-life Republican and the chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee agreed to look into the serious and significant accusations and investigate. He has called for reports going back to 1998 for his deep and comprehensive audit. 

Meanwhile, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Diana DeGette (D-CO), have sent a letter to Stearns saying the investigation is unwarranted and, "designed to harass and shut down an organization simply because Republicans disagree with the work that it does."

They continued, "We are aware of no predicate that would justify this sweeping and invasive request to Planned Parenthood, It would be an abuse of the oversight process if you are now using the Committee's investigative powers to harass Planned Parenthood again. Your fervent ideological opposition to Planned Parenthood does not justify launching this intrusive investigation."

Waxman also stated that he is hopeful that Stearns will reconsider the investigation and look for more productive ways to spend the subcommittee's resources. He suggested examining private health insurers or reexamining food safety. 

Planned Parenthood is also defending itself, saying it only uses federal money to help low-income patients afford preventative health care and family-planning services (birth control and abortions). They say that abortions account for only 3 percent of their services and those are paid for out of the patient's pocket. 

Planned Parenthood says it has passed every regular audit of the Department of Health and Human Services and complies fully with federal law. 

To others, the apologetics are suspicious. It remains to be seen why Planned Parenthood, in the face of serious and significant accusations, would do anything less than welcome an investigation, provided its practices were worthy of scrutiny. Naturally, if abortions were but a miniscule fraction of their services and the institution were a paragon of patient care, then it should be studied carefully and even modeled. 

Unless of course, that's not really the case--then the protests and apologetics make a lot of sense. 

An awful lot.

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