All aboard the Unbelievable Waste of Time Express as it departs the station for an indeterminate, never-to-be-reached destination: the House is preparing a resolution to convene a special subcommittee to “investigate” Planned Parenthood. They’ll be in there however long it takes, which will be forever.


The House’s Energy and Commerce Committee voted just now to convene a special, thirteen-member subcommittee to investigate PP. It would be headed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who once co-sponsored a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks under the bogus premise of fetal pain, and who already thinks Planned Parenthood has been “caught” doing something or other:


In a press release issued Tuesday, Blackburn is quoted as saying that she is Deeply Concerned about those Planned Parenthood sting videos, as though she were undecided on the issue before:

“No issue is more deserving of our undivided attention than protecting the dignity of human life,” said full committee Vice Chairman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). “Over the past several weeks we have been asking serious and, frankly, troubling questions about how infant lives are being treated. What our investigation has shown us so far is we have many more questions than we have answers. This select panel will devote the time necessary to get the facts in this investigation and help ensure that the most innocent lives among us are given the respect they deserve as human babies.”

The resolution from the committee says the subcommittee will be investigating “medical procedures and business practices used by entities involved in fetal tissue procurement,” as well as “the practices of providers of second and third trimester abortions, including partial birth abortion and procedures that may lead to a child born alive as a result of an attempted abortion.”

Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, sent out a press release that reads, in part, “This is now a five-ring circus — and counting. This would be the fifth committee to launch an investigation based on false claims that have been totally discredited.”


The full House will vote tomorrow on establishing the subcommittee. In the meantime, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are demanding that its chair subpoena David Daleiden, the man behind the Center for Medical Progress. The chair, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, hosted last week’s five-hour grilling of PPFA president Cecile Richards, and wept as he talked about his personal desire to see Planned Parenthood defunded.

The Planned Parenthood subcommittee can join the Select Committee on Benghazi, which is still out there. Investigating. Just investigating forever.


Contact the author at anna.merlan@jezebel.com .

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