Missouri Lawmakers Plan St. Louis Planned Parenthood Probe

(AP) – Two Republican state lawmakers from Missouri announced plans Friday to investigate the state’s only abortion facility after anti-abortion activists released an undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s national medical director discussing the disposition of parts from aborted fetuses.
The video, which shows Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, discussing procedures for providing fetal body parts to researchers, has spurred outrage from a number of Republican elected officials nationwide.
While the commercial sale of fetal tissue is outlawed, Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions and other reproductive health services, said in response to the video that it legally helps women who want to make not-for-profit donations of their fetus’ organs for scientific research.
Republican Reps. Andrew Koenig, chair of the Missouri’s House Ways and Means Committee, and Diane Franklin, chair of the House Children and Families Committee, said they will coordinate a joint investigation into whether the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis sold aborted fetuses for profit. The investigation follows similar investigations in Georgia and Indiana, as well as a probe announced Wednesday by three Republican-led congressional committees.