Shelby, Sessions warn HHS not to delete Planned Parenthood records ahead of investigation

WASHINGTON — Alabama’s U.S. Senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions on Wednesday signed a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell urging her agency to cooperate with upcoming investigations into Planned Parenthood and warning DHS not to delete any relevant records.

Planned Parenthood annually receives more than $500 million in funding from the federal government, mostly through Medicaid and Department of Health and Human Services grants. The organization is the largest abortion provider in the country, performing over 300,000 abortions every year.

It has been thrust into the national spotlight recently as a result of two videos by undercover investigative journalists showing Planned Parenthood executives casually discussing the harvesting and sale of the organs of aborted babies.

Wednesday’s letter to Secretary Burwell signals congress’s seriousness about investigating the matter.

“We expect the Department of Health and Human Services to fully cooperate with ensuing investigations — including future requests for information and hearing participation,” the senators wrote.

Additionally, the senators specifically warned Secretary Burwell to ensure her agency is preserving all records related to Planned Parenthood.

In 2014, the Internal Revenue Service told Congressional investigators the agency could not recover two years of emails from Lois Lerner, who ran they agency’s tax-exempt status department, which had been accused of unfairly targeting Tea Party groups. More recently, the U.S. State Department and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came under fire for Mrs. Clinton’s use of a private email server and the deletion of tens of thousands of emails during her tenure.

Congress is clearly trying to get ahead of any potential similar issues with the upcoming Planned Parenthood investigations.

“[We] expect the immediate preservation of any and all Department electronic and paper records that could have any relevance to any ongoing and forthcoming lawful investigations,” the senators wrote.

The full text of the letter can be read below and the original copy, including all accompanying signatures, can be found here.

Dear Secretary Burwell,

We are deeply disturbed by recent footage released by the Center for Medical Progress depicting senior Planned Parenthood Foundation of America executives discussing in graphic detail the organization’s practice of harvesting the organs of unborn babies.

The footage raises a number of questions about the practices of the organization, including whether they are in compliance with federal laws regulating both the use of fetal tissue and partial-birth abortions.

In addition to questions about Planned Parenthood’s compliance with applicable federal law and medical ethics, we believe the footage prompts important policy questions surrounding the issue of abortions permitted so late in a pregnancy — sometimes even later than 5 months — that an unborn baby’s organs can be identified and harvested.

Congress is undertaking efforts to address these questions, and we expect the Department of Health and Human Services to fully cooperate with ensuing investigations — including future requests for information and hearing participation. To that end, we further expect the immediate preservation of any and all Department electronic and paper records that could have any relevance to any ongoing and forthcoming lawful investigations.

It is our understand that, to date, you have refrained from commenting on the questions raised by the footage until you can review the matter further. We appreciate your acknowledgement that this matter requires further examination, and upon your receipt of this letter, we request that you confirm in writing that you have either commencred or will immediately initiate a thorough internal review of the compliance of the Department and Planned Parenthood — one of the Department’s grantees — with all relevant and applicable federal statutes, regulations, and other requirements. Please also include a description of the expected scope of the internal review, as well as an estimated completion date.

We look forward to future correspondence on this matter, and we hope that we can count on you as a key partner in our efforts to address the various legal, ethical, and policy concerns raised by the information contained in the footage.