Baby Body Parts Company StemExpress Held in Contempt of Congress for Stonewalling Investigation

Ben Johnson : Sep 22, 2016
LifeSiteNews.com

The company tried to shield itself from scrutiny by saying the requested information could lead to the murders of its employees.

(Washington, DC)—[LifeSiteNews] The House Select Panel on Infant Lives has voted to hold StemExpress in contempt of Congress for stonewalling its investigation into the harvesting and sale of aborted babies' body parts. (Photo via LifeNews.com)

The vote took place [Wednesday] afternoon on an 8-0, party line vote. After multiple attempts to scuttle or delay the vote with procedural motions, the panel's six Democrats refused to take part in the final vote.

After a series of undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress exposed Planned Parenthood's "fetal tissue donation" program last year, the House of Representatives established a special panel to investigate whether their actions violated federal laws against selling human organs. Federal law—specifically, Title 42 USC Section 289g-2—makes selling human fetal tissue a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of $500,000, or both.

Planned Parenthood's most conspicuous partner was StemExpress, a California-based biological company. A StemExpress brochure given to abortion providers promises to furnish "financial profits" and "a financial benefit to your clinic."

"We lose money doing this," the company's CEO, Cate Dyer, told the Washington Post in May.

However, StemExpress' revenues increased 1,316 percent between 2010 and 2013, and more than doubled the following year.

The House Select panel demanded a full accounting of the company's finances, its partners, the names of key individuals who oversee its fiscal contracts, and bank records. After an initial...

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