I was honored to be appointed to the Senate Interim Committee on Sanctity of Life which had its first meeting on Monday, July 27, 2015. This temporary committee was constructed after a controversial video was released in which a high-ranking Planned Parenthood official discusses providing fetal tissue to medical researchers. The committee’s intention is to investigate Planned Parenthood’s Missouri operations.
The responsibilities of the interim committee are to conduct an in-depth analysis of how Planned Parenthood conducts business and how they dispose of human remains from aborted fetuses; investigate if they are or intend to engage in activities conflicting with state laws; determine if state dollars have funded these activities or on any other expenses in efforts to afford such actions; investigate if any former or present employee of the state had any such knowledge of these action; and investigate any other issues the committee sees as relevant to the allegations.
Within the guidelines of the committee, we may also conduct public hearings. Necessary legal, research and technical services will be performed by the staff in Senate Research and Senate Appropriations. Finally, the committee will generate a report with recommendations to the General Assembly regarding appropriate legislative action no later than Dec. 31, 2015.
Based on what we have already heard in graphic detail nationwide concerning harvesting the organs in these tiny babies, I am truly disgusted to hear Planned Parenthood’s intentions to turn the bodies of dead and aborted fetuses into income generated business, as outlined by remarks made by Dr. Deborah Nucatola in the released video.
When women enter these clinics in traumatic situations, we must understand that these women never hear the words fetus, baby or human. What they hear is tissue. Any mention of life beyond their own is stripped and the child growing within them is treated as though it is not a life, not a living being. I have toured Planned Parenthood in Columbia and not one time during our entire conversation was a fetus ever referred to as a human being. It was always referred to as tissue.
I believe that they try to hide the truth from women, especially those young and vulnerable, and I think it is wrong. It is my hope, that through this committee we do everything that we possibly can to protect not only the women of this state who are being lied to, but the young silent victims as well.
It is an honor to be your State Senator and my door is always open to your concerns, questions or comments. Please feel free to contact me at (573) 751-2757 or visit my web page at www.senate.mo.gov/riddle. |
