(PatriorSpotlight.org) – Senator Marco Rubio has called for a federal investigation into abortion provider Planned Parenthood. The Florida politician’s plea comes amid claims the family planning service provided parts of aborted unborn children to the University of California San Diego for what the former contender for the GOP Presidential nominee described as illegal “valuable consideration.” Senator Rubio is a longtime public pro-lifer, who has said that even “one abortion is too many”.
Rubio’s push was publicized in an open letter penned to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm, and revealed by The Daily Signal. In the letter, Rubio said that if the reported ties between Planned Parenthood and UCSD are confirmed, their actions would mark an obvious violation of federal statutes banning the exchange of fetal tissue for financial compensation. He requested that both Planned Parenthood and UCSD open a probe into the matter. He said their findings must be published publicly, and that any guilty parties are “held accountable to the fullest extent of the law”.
The contractual agreement between Planned Parenthood’s Pacific Southwest branch and the prestigious college began in 2009. The contract stipulated that Planned Parenthood would offer “fetal and placental tissue” to the college to enable research. Senator Rubio said that the contract’s inclusion of the need for “valuable consideration” was a potential legal issue given federal law’s ban on such ties. The agreement stipulated that Planned Parenthood keep intellectual property rights over the fetal tissue, while also receiving credit for its ”contribution” in any publications or studies resulting from the use of the body parts.
Rubio also cited claims that Planned Parenthood and the UCSD were actively collaborating on research, with his office obtaining documents revealing a donation of $10,000 from the university to the US abortion provider as recently as 2021. The same year, the Biden administration controversially walked back restrictions brought in by former President Donald Trump, henceforth allowing the use of fetal tissue in medical research.
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