16 July,2015 09:54 AM IST | | Agencies
A top member of the US Congress is calling on legislators to investigate whether a leading family planning advocacy group is selling organs from aborted fetuses
Washington: A top member of the US Congress is calling on legislators to investigate whether a leading family planning advocacy group is selling organs from aborted fetuses.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner also says he wants President Barack Obama to denounce the practice.
Boehner, a Republican, released his statement a day after an anti-abortion group circulated a video it secretly made showing an official with the Planned Parenthood pro-choice organization discussing the disposal of body parts from aborted fetuses.
Planned Parenthood has said the video was heavily edited. It says the organization helps women who want to donate their fetus' organs for scientific research. It says its activities are legal and they do not profit by donating the organs to science.
"When an organization monetizes an unborn child and with the cavalier attitude portrayed in this horrific video we must all act," Boehner said.
Minutes after Boehner released his statement, the House Energy and Commerce Committee said it would investigate the issue. Commercial sale of human fetal tissue is illegal under federal law. Non-commercial tissue donation is allowed if the woman undergoing an abortion gives her consent.
