Press Releases

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) today chided Select Panel Republicans for escalating their abusive investigation that’s sole aim is to intimidate women, doctors and medical researchers.

“This so-called investigation has never been objective or fact-based, and these proceedings are no different. The Panel has always been about harassing, intimidating and threatening people who enable this life-saving medical research to take place, simply because the Majority opposes a woman’s constitutional right to choose. What’s worse, their efforts are working,” DelBene said. “If we ever hope to protect women and families from Zika — if we ever want to develop treatments for diseases like Alzheimer’s or HIV — we need to stop harassing researchers and cutting off lines of scientific inquiry.”

DelBene spoke at today’s Select Panel hearing, where Republicans harassed the small biotech company StemExpress, charging it with criminal contempt – an unwarranted allegation against a cooperative organization that has already provided 1,700 pages of documents to the Panel. Video can be found HERE.

Unfortunately, Select Panel Republicans have succeeded in intimidating medical researchers, some of whom have said the Select Panel’s actions endanger their ability to understand and seek effective treatments for life-threatening diseases and conditions. One research company has even gone out of business due to the Panel’s relentless inquires.

DelBene is an appointed member of Republicans’ Select Panel to Attack Women’s Health, which was established to investigate Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers after doctored videos were released from a group of anti-choice extremists. In her role on the Select Panel, DelBene is fighting to protect women’s access to healthcare and safeguard the privacy and safety of doctors, patients, researchers and medical students across the country.

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