In the News

The U.S. House of Representatives, on top of spending $5 million on a pointless, politically motivated Benghazi investigation, set up a 13-member select panel to investigate Planned Parenthood and the alleged sale for profit of fetal tissue for research.

"This panel has an ideological agenda: It should be disbanded," Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a minority member of the panel, said Wednesday.

DelBene described the committee as a "charade" and "waste of money."

She was seconded by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, whose office investigated Planned Parenthood at the request of Republican state legislators.

The AG's finding: "Absolutely no wrongdoing!" said Ferguson, echoing similar findings from AGs in Florida and Nevada.

A grand jury in Texas, impaneled to probe Planned Parenthood, instead returned felony indictments against two anti-abortion activists who made (heavily edited) undercover tapes of Planned Parenthood officials.

The Select Panel on Planned Parenthood was established under the auspices of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (HECC).

It once conducted sweeping probes of mishaps at the nation's nuclear weapons facilities, as well as a debacle in managing Superfund toxic-waste cleanup.  Heads rolled at the top of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  One manager served time.The committee has, in years past, played a useful, honorable role in the life of Washington state.

The panel protected whistleblowers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.  Nuclear workers at a Richland bar, without prompting, once lifted cups to HEEC Chairman Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

That was then.  The committee on which DelBene serves took four and a half months to hold a hearing. 

It has issued subpoenas to scientists engaged in fetal tissue research, a cause championed by former first lady Nancy Reagan.

"This has not been a bipartisan effort," DelBene told a briefing.  "It is ideologically driven.  It has impacted researchers ... Republicans are now issuing subpoenas and sweeping document requests to intimidate health care providers, patients, researchers and medical students -- all the while putting these individuals' safety and privacy at risk."

Ferguson, in his investigation, looked at 32 medical facilities run by Planned Parenthood across Washington.  The AG's office found:

"Of the 32 health centers, only one donates fetal tissue.  The tissue is donated to the Birth Defects Research Laboratory at the University of Washington.  It is used to research cures and prevention for heart damage, macular degeneration, newborn brain malfunctions, and other birth defects.

"The University of Washington supplies the shipping materials required for transportation and Planned Parenthood does not receive any compensation or cost recovery."

Still, the anti-abortion group's tapes have generated an outcry.  Washington used to be home to pro-choice Republican politicians but no more.

"What kind of a country are we if we think @PPFA's actions are acceptable," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., asked in a tweet.

McMorris Rodgers, a member of the House Republican leadership, has accused Planned Parenthood of (unsubstantiated) "horrendous acts" and (unspecified) "unethical and illegal" behavior.

In response, Ferguson noted Wednesday:  "Facts matter.  Words do matter.  The tone of our public discourse has deteriorated dramatically."

On Sept. 4, 2015, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman was destroyed in an arson attack.

The crime remains unsolved.  The clinic, which serves the University of Idaho and Washington State University, has been rebuilt and has reopened.

Pullman is in McMorris Rodgers' district.  She has never commented on the arson attack.