Until just over a year ago, when undercover investigative journalists revealed that a market had been created to sell human fetal tissue for a profit, no one could have imagined how hardened the abortion industry in America had become.

Millions of Americans were astonished and outraged when they learned that Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics supplement their budgets by selling the leftover parts of children they have aborted.

No matter how much my side of the aisle sets its focus on serious issues, the name-calling from Democrats continued.

Indeed, many could hardly stomach watching lab techs and abortionists sift through trays of body parts, callously talking about their monetary value.

I am tasked to chair a fact-finding committee, the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, which has been working tirelessly to investigate this industry.

Several studies by Harvard researchers confirm: Planned Parenthood’s bottom line has been suffering. So when fetal tissue procurement companies come knocking and offer to buy the “products of conception” that would otherwise be thrown away, abortion clinics see a golden opportunity.

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The key statute here is 42 USC § 289g-2. It allows for the transfer of fetal tissue, but strictly prohibits profit.

And even though Planned Parenthood has dipped into their vast pockets to pay for a slick PR campaign during this year of their 100th anniversary to deny any profit, our committee has repeatedly found cases where payments for tissue exceeded any reasonable cost of transportation.

Our recent interim update highlighted the sordid relationship not only between these middleman companies and abortion clinics, but between many universities and abortion clinics. This business model facilitates the sale of body parts.

Schools like the University of New Mexico work closely with local abortion clinics to procure tissue and conduct research. Others, like the University of Washington, perform their abortions in-house and ship off the body parts to other researchers.

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Our focus most recently has been StemExpress, the fetal tissue procurement company at the heart of the undercover videos.

Because StemExpress and its CEO, Cate Dyer, have refused to comply with several subpoenas, we have recommended that the House of Representatives hold them in contempt of Congress. We held a mark-up for the contempt report two weeks ago, at which Select Panel member Sean Duffy asked, “What is in the banking and accounting records that is so secretive that they won’t comply with a congressional, lawful subpoena? … What don’t they want us to know?”

Rather than work with us on the report, the Democrats walked out of the meeting.

I am deeply concerned not only by their lack of cooperation, but by the lack of cooperation of abortion clinics, universities, and tissue procurement companies. Their blatant refusal to comply with congressional authority further indicates their disregard for the law.

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The Democrats’ walk-out was regrettably just the latest in a pattern of demagoguery and political stunts. When our committee was initially formed last year — even before we hired staff — the Democrats labeled it the “Select Panel to Attack Women’s Health.”

No matter how much my side of the aisle sets its focus on serious issues, the name-calling from Democrats continued. It continued when we convened a hearing to conduct a serious forum on the ethics of fetal tissue use. It continued when our panel subpoenaed late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart following reports that at least five of his patients had been sent to the hospital in less than six months.

It even continued when the panel made its first investigative referral of StemExpress to Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell for violating the HIPAA-protected privacy rights of women. That the Democrats would continue with their pre-packaged epithets no matter how much work we are actually doing on behalf of both women and infants reveals their hubris.

This panel does not have to be viciously partisan: At the heart of our investigation is an accounting statute. We simply want to use our lawful congressional authority to investigate whether or not the accounting statute is being violated.

Lastly, despite repeated claims by our colleagues across the aisle, Republicans care deeply about funding scientific research. I cosponsored the 21st Century Cures Act which encourages health care innovation and research. Like so many of us, I have friends and family who suffer from incurable diseases.

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Our nation has a celebrated history of astonishing scientific advancements achieved with careful attention to ethics. Tragedies like the Tuskegee scandal in Alabama have only heightened public awareness of the need for ethical boundaries.

It is imperative that we continue this national conversation. We must ask ourselves if fetal tissue for important research should be obtained by aborting children. If we think this is morally acceptable, we must ask if it is ethical to make a profit. Former Congressman Henry Waxman, a Democrat, did not think so and he added language to the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 to make sure it never happened.

Our panel is tasked with finding facts. I hope the Democrats will join us in our effort to uncover the truth about what is really going on in America’s abortion and fetal tissue industry.

Marsha Blackburn serves as chair of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives and is vice chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She represents the 7th Congressional District of Tennessee.