Did the Republican-Led House Just Give Planned Parenthood a Big Hint of Things to Come?

USA Today reported that the Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives voted to provide the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives with an additional $800,000.

The special panel examined Planned Parenthood’s role in selling the body parts of aborted babies. An excerpt:

Republicans said the additional funding is needed for the 14-member panel to complete its work. But Democrats said the panel continues to waste taxpayer dollars by chasing down baseless allegations against abortion providers and medical researchers while putting the lives of women and doctors at risk.

In related news, the panel made a recommendation abortion advocates definitely won’t like. Chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the panel referred Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to the Texas Attorney General for criminal prosecution for trafficking the parts of aborted babies.

The special panel previously asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate StemExpress — the tissue company that severed its relationship with the abortion mill after the Center for Medical Progress began releasing undercover videos — and abortion clinics for possible patient privacy and consent violations.

From LifeSiteNews:

Along with Planned Parenthood of Gulf Coast, the Select Panel referred StemExpress and DV Biologics, two medical research companies implicated in CMP’s investigation, for illegally profiting from fetal body parts. Also referred to law enforcement were The University of New Mexico, an Arkansas abortion facility, an Ohio university, Advanced Bioscience Resources, and Presidential Women’s Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins called the panel’s recommendation “the appropriate next step in bringing justice to bear on a group that clearly sees itself as above the law.  With criminal prosecution a growing possibility, the new Congress should once again use the reconciliation process to redirect taxpayer dollars away from Planned Parenthood.”

Texas Right to Life said in a statement that the “diligent work of the federal House Select Panel under the leadership of Pro-Life stalwart Representative Marsha Blackburn has renewed hopes in Texas that the shocking evidence revealed by the Center for Medical Progress will be thoroughly investigated and those at fault held accountable to the full extent of the law.”