Invoices from Houston Planned Parenthood Show Profit from Aborted Baby Remains & Add Concerns that Grand Jury Tainted by Bias
Operation Rescue calls for the resignation of Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson for her retaliatory prosecution of pro-life activists and cover-up of apparent Planned Parenthood crimes
Contact: Troy Newman, President, 316-841-1700; Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President, 316-516-3034; both with Operation Rescue, info.operationrescue@gmail.com
HOUSTON, Jan. 29, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Yesterday, Operation Rescue's Texas attorney, Brisco Cain, released never-before seen documents that show Planned Parenthood engaged in providing fetal body parts from aborted babies to four public-funded Texas universities.
Cain stated in a news conference held in front of the Houston Planned Parenthood office that the documents "appear to throw water on Planned Parenthood's claim that they do not profit from the sale of fetal tissue, but only make enough to cover their costs."
These documents add to mounting evidence that the Harris County grand jury's decision to "clear" Planned Parenthood was motivated not on the evidence, but by bias against Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, for complaints filed against another Houston abortionist, Douglas Karpen, in 2013. Newman served as a founding board member for the Center for Medical Progress, which released a series of undercover video summaries last year that clearly showed Planned Parenthood was illegally profiting from the sale of aborted baby remains.
Instead, the grand jury indicted CMP head David Daleiden, and his associate, Sandra Merritt, who appeared in the undercover videos taken at the Houston Planned Parenthood office.
"It is now clear that the Harris County grand jury never really investigated Planned Parenthood," said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue. "Because of this new evidence, we renew our call for a new grand jury to investigate Planned Parenthood to be directed by an independent special prosecutor not related in any way to Devon Anderson, anyone in the Harris County District Attorney's office, or Anderson's friend, Chip Lewis."
Many of the documents and e-mails released by Cain were signed by Melissa Farrell, Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston, Texas, the same Planned Parenthood official who appeared in the fifth video released by the CMP on August 4, 2015.
The invoices that originated from Planned Parenthood divided their bills into two general categories. First was the "reimbursement for study supplies" which appear to be costs related to the fetal tissue. Reimbursement for hard costs is allowable under the law.
The second was "consent payments," which appears to be a designation where Planned Parenthood 'hid' the profit. This payment would be illegal.
In a statement released yesterday, Daleiden explained how Farrell indicated to him how she could cover up the payments or aborted baby specimens in order to make them look like expenses.
"Farrell admitted on camera to undercover investigators that PPGC 'worded' the per-specimen charges for fetal specimens as 'per consent' in order to 'frame' the project budget in a way that will look legal 'on paper,'" stated Daleiden.
"Because Planned Parenthood was selling to publicly funded universities, this means that our tax dollars went to buy aborted baby remains and ended up in the pockets of Planned Parenthood executives," said Sullenger. "Yet Devon Anderson turned a blind eye to this crime while charging the people that reported the crimes. This injustice must not be allowed to stand."
In addition to a new investigation of Planned Parenthood, Operation Rescue is now calling for the resignation of District Attorney Devon Anderson and for the reopening of an investigation of Douglas Karpen, who was accused of the murder of at least two babies who were born alive during late-term abortions at his abortion facility in Houston.
View the Documents.
Read the Breitbart article that broke this story.
Read background on the Karpen case and its connection to the Planned Parenthood case.
Read the Jan. 28, 2016, statement from the Center for Medical Progress.
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