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Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
House Panel Votes To Hold Fetal Tissue Firm In Contempt; Dems Walk Out In Protest
A Republican-run House committee voted along party lines Wednesday to hold a company that provides researchers with fetal tissue in contempt of Congress. Republicans say StemExpress has not produced all the documents they want. Democrats say the GOP is harassing the California-based company and trying to discourage fetal research. Democrats walked out of the meeting before the 8-0 vote. They say the committee lacks the authority to take such action. (9/21)
A House panel investigating fetal tissue research Wednesday voted to begin contempt proceedings against a California company — an effort that Republicans contend is a rescue mission for the unborn and that Democrats call a witch hunt. Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the chairman of the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, has been pursuing StemExpress, which collects fetal tissue from abortion providers and sells it to medical researchers, for nearly a year. (Kaplan, 9/21)
The House committee set up to investigate Planned Parenthood on Wednesday voted to recommend holding a fetal tissue procurement company in contempt after Democrats walked out of the session in protest. The panel voted to advance a resolution holding Stem Express in contempt for failing to provide all of the documents it was required to turn over under a congressional subpoena. Republicans said they were looking for accounting records from the company to make sure that it is not involved in the sale of fetal tissue for profit, which is illegal. (Sullivan, 9/21)
House Democrats on Wednesday walked out of a meeting of a congressional investigative panel launched in the aftermath of the controversy over Planned Parenthood's abortion practices, charging the proceedings amounted to a "witch hunt." The meeting of the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives was to consider a report recommending that the biotech company StemExpress LLC and its founder Catherine Spears Dyer be held in contempt for refusing to comply to subpoenas seeking accounting records relating to research of fetal tissue. (Rahman, 9/21)
