Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is referring a number of Planned Parenthood affiliates and companies for investigation to the FBI and the Department of Justice, according to a statement on his website.
Grassley is recommending criminal charges for allegedly profiting from the sale of fetal body parts from abortions.
"I don't take lightly making a criminal referral. But the seeming disregard for the law by these entities has been fueled by decades of utter failure by the Justice Department to enforce it," Grassley said in a statement.
"And, unless there is a renewed commitment by everyone involved against commercializing the trade in aborted fetal body parts for profit, then the problem is likely to continue."
The committee analyzed more than 20,000 pages of documents voluntarily released by the organizations in the case. Videos released by the anti-abortion activist group Center for Medical Progress led to the investigation, but the committee's findings were based on the documents, not the video, according to the statement.
The committee's findings were that Planned Parenthood's cost analyses "lack sufficient documentation and rely on unreasonably broad and vague claims of costs for the 'transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control or storage of fetal tissue.'"
The committee found that Planned Parenthood only made the analyses "long after the fact and at the insistence of the committee."
"Planned Parenthood must be prosecuted, and the over half a billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies that are propping up this absolutely corrupt and potentially criminal enterprise must be cut off immediately," said Lila Rose of the anti-abortion group Live Action.
Dana Singiser, vice president of Planned Parenthood's governmental affairs, released a response:
"Planned Parenthood strongly disagrees with the recommendations of the Senate Republican staff, especially in light of the fact that investigations by three other Congressional committees, and investigations in thirteen states including a grand jury in Texas, have shown Planned Parenthood has done nothing wrong," The Des Moines Register reports.
The Obama administration, however, is not likely to follow through on Grassley's recommendation, according to The Washington Times.
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