The Chair of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives is accusing fetal harvesting company StemExpress and three abortion facilities of breaking federal disclosure laws, and StemExpress of engaging in fraud. According to Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in letters to two senior Obama administration officials, it’s time for the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to investigate.

“The panel’s investigations uncovered a series of business contracts between StemExpress, a tissue procurement business … and several abortion clinics,” said Blackburn in a letter to the Director of Centralized Case Management Operations. “These contracts produced a regime of cooperation between StemExpress and each clinic.”

“StemExpress and the biggest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country engaged in a five-year-long scheme to profit off aborted baby body parts using unprotected confidential patient information and disregarding normal patient protections, in direct violation of HIPAA and other federal laws.” David Daleiden

The letter goes on to accuse three abortion facilities of violating federal HIPAA privacy rules when they “disclosed patients’ individually identifiable health information to StemExpress.” The patients were pregnant women who were going to the clinics for abortions, and their information was shared with StemExpress so the company’s technicians could gather information about the value of the unborn child’s parts for research and other purposes.

While HIPAA laws do allow for certain organizations to partner with health groups to gather patient information, the letter says StemExpress does not qualify because it did not engage in the “limited” services usually provided by “business associates.”

Abortion Industry Hypocrisy?

Two of the abortion clinics named in the letter are affiliated with Planned Parenthood.

Attorney Catherine Glenn Foster, who recently testified to the Select Panel and previously represented a pro-life advocate who lost a lawsuit about patient privacy against a Planned Parenthood affiliate, told The Stream that the abortion giant’s stance on patient privacy is inconsistent.

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest had refused to hand over information to Jonathan Bloedow, a Washington-based pro-life activist who wanted to use health records to see if the abortion company was violating laws. While state laws were a deciding factor in Planned Parenthood’s victory, Planned Parenthood also cited HIPAA laws in its defense.

“Planned Parenthood is being hypocritical by claiming HIPAA medical privacy protections when it suits their interests,” said Foster, “but pretending they don’t exist when they can make a quick buck by sharing women’s intimate details with middlemen who plan to chop up their children for sale.”

StemExpress Accused of Fraud

A second letter sent by Blackburn to HHS, directed to the Director of the Office for Human Research Protections, accused StemExpress’ “Institutional Review Board” (IRB) approval of being fraudulent.

A business or university’s IRB is supposed to ensure that any research on human subjects follows the law and ethical standards. BioMed IRB approved StemExpress in 2015, but appeared to violate a records regulation when it told the Select Panel’s staff that it had no records for StemExpress.

StemExpress has been regularly approved by BioMed IRB for years — including before the review board’s ability to approve studies was suspended by the Food & Drug Administration for approximately eight months in 2012 and the beginning of 2013. BioMed was found to be in violation of a number of federal regulations and laws, such as poor record-keeping.

Responses

In a statement, Blackburn said, “The key to understanding the HIPAA and consent violations that we’ve referred to HHS is that there’s a business contract between StemExpress and the abortion clinics under which both sides make a profit from the baby body parts inside the young woman’s womb.”

“The contract changes the way both entities view the young woman: her baby is now a profit-center,” Blackburn continued. “This betrayal of a young woman’s trust should disgust us all. It takes financial advantage, obtains consent through coercion and deceives the woman, all in violation of federal privacy laws.”

In a statement e-mailed to The Stream, StemExpress said it “is confident there has been no violation of law and appropriate consents were made for every fetal tissue donation. We welcome the opportunity to answer any questions from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or any other agency related to Representative Blackburn’s continued unfounded accusations.”

The undercover investigator who put StemExpress under Congress’ scrutiny, David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, said in a statement that “StemExpress and the biggest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country engaged in a five-year-long scheme to profit off aborted baby body parts using unprotected confidential patient information and disregarding normal patient protections, in direct violation of HIPAA and other federal laws.”

“Elected officials at all levels must act immediately to hold lawless entities like StemExpress and Planned Parenthood accountable for their atrocities against humanity,” said Daleiden.

A spokesperson for HHS told The Stream that “OCR does not comment on open or potential investigations.” BioMed IRB, which maintained its innocence during the FDA suspension, did not respond to a voice message by deadline. Both of Blackburn’s letters and supporting documentation can be seen here.