By Cheryl Sullenger
Washington, DC — The Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has released their final report detailing their investigation, findings and recommendations related to the underground trade in aborted baby remains for profit and late-term abortion abuses.
The 471-page report also includes hundreds of pages of supporting documents that explains the Select Panel’s fifteen criminal referrals for further investigation and prosecution, including five Planned Parenthood organizations, three middle-man procurement companies, and abortion providers in Texas, Arkansas, Florida, and New Mexico.
“We are proud of the accomplishments of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives and thank them for their tireless investigation, which has vindicated much of Operation Rescue’s work that has raised the alarm about abortion abuses over the past few years,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, whose staff members cooperated with Congressional investigators.
Newman also served as a founding member of the Center for Medical Progress, whose undercover videos revealing Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the sale of aborted baby parts served as the basis for the Select Panel’s investigation.
“Every word of those videos has been validated as true,” said Newman. “It is gratifying to see our allegations verified by the Panel’s investigation.”
In addition to the Planned Parenthood criminal referrals related to illegal trafficking in aborted baby organs and tissue, some of the referrals were made for abortion providers that were uniquely projects of Operation Rescue.
Since 2010, Operation Rescue has worked with local activists in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to expose abuses at Southwestern Women’s Options (SWO), the largest late-term abortion facility in the U.S. We have repeatedly exposed the link between SWO and the University of New Mexico (UNM), which used tax dollars to expand abortion in New Mexico.
Both SWO and UNM had been referred to New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas for prosecution on charges they violated the state anatomical gift act and failed to provide legally-required informed consent to women.
Operation Rescue also first discovered that Houston late-term abortionist Douglas Karpen had likely engaged in illegal conduct and worked with former employees of his two abortion facilities who still stand by their allegations that he murdered viable babies “Gosnell-style” who were born alive during illegal late-term abortions.
Karpen evaded indictment by a 2013 grand jury due to political corruption in the Harris County District Attorney’s office – corruption that Operation Rescue helped expose.
Karpen has now been referred the Texas Attorney General’s office and the U.S. Department of Justice for a laundry list of crimes including murder, infanticide, violation of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, and fraudulent concealment of criminal conduct from government authorities, among others.
“We took a lot of heat over our efforts to bring Planned Parenthood and the other dangerous abortionists to justice. I was falsely accused of lying, faking evidence, and committing crimes I never committed,’ said Newman. “But today, every allegation we made about the abortion providers who have been referred for criminal charges has been verified by the Congressional investigation that vindicated our work over and over. Now we pray these abortionists, who have made their livings exploiting women and killing innocent babies, will receive proper justice in a court of law.”
The Select Panel has recommended several significant changes, which include in part:

• Defund Planned Parenthood of Title X grants and Medicaid payments.
• Recommendation that a law be passed by Congress that would mandate that babies 20 weeks gestation or older be born alive. It would ban intentionally killing or dismembering a child in the womb after 20 weeks.
• Mandate training for abortionists in the care of infants born alive during abortions.
• Establish criminal penalties for violating the Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
• Create a division within the Department of Justice within the criminal division to enforce Federal abortion laws, such as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, etc.
• Improve Biomedical Research by instituting safeguards so that only ethical (non-abortion) sources of tissue are used.
• Establish guidelines for the use of human fetal tissue.

“Under the Obama Administration or even a Hillary Clinton Administration, we know nothing would be done to make the changes needed to protect women and their babies from exploitation by a predatory abortion industry. However, once the new Trump Administration takes office, we expect that they will take this very seriously,” said Newman. “We will continue to monitor the progress of the Select Panel’s criminal referrals and recommendations and encourage Congress and prosecutors to act swiftly.”
Read the Final Report and Exhibits
Read the 15 criminal referral letters