The House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives has announced that it has made a total of 15 criminal referrals based on its investigation into the underground trade in aborted baby organs and tissue. Six of the referral letters were just released late yesterday, while nine others had been previously made public.

Among the new criminal referral letters issued by Select Investigative Panel Chair Marsha Blackburn were two made against Texas late-term abortionist Douglas Karpen to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Texas Attorney General’s office seeking further investigation and appropriate action.

In 2012, Operation Rescue began acquiring evidence against Karpen from his former employees. That evidence included photographs depicting the bodies of two infants that were clearly in their third trimester of pregnancy, which were said to have been aborted by Karpen. Those photos were provided directly to Operation Rescue in November 2012, by the former Karpen employee who took them with her cell phone. They depicted wounds that could not have occurred while the baby was still inside the womb.

Blackburn referenced those photographs in both criminal referral letters against Karpen. She quoted from witness affidavits that described how Karpen killed late-term babies who were born alive during abortions at his Houston abortion facilities at a rate of three to four per week.

[Karpen] would terminate the lives of these infants, Employee #1 further alleges based on those incidents she witnessed, by any of several methods, including the following: Snipping the infant’s spinal cord with scissors, cutting the neck with Sopher forceps or similar instruments; twisting the infant’s head; using forceps or other instruments, or his finger to crush the “soft spot” of the infant’s head, or crushing it by the same means through its stomach; or inserting his finger down its throat. If the infant’s cranium was coming out first, he would usually use his index finger to puncture its head, but if it was coming out feet first, he would instead insert an instrument in the back of the infant’s head.

Blackburn further addressed a 2013 Harris County Grand Jury assigned to investigate the allegations against Karpen of illegal late-term abortion and murder, which were brought by Operation Rescue in a formal complaint. That grand jury failed to return a true bill.

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“[Karpen] was previously referred to the District Attorney of Harris County, but the investigation into the matter was deficient,” Blackburn stated.

The Select Investigative Panel referenced several violations Karpen may have committed that warrant further investigation and possible prosecution, including:

• Violations of Texas homicide laws.

• Violation of the Federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act.

• Violation of the Federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

• State and Federal violations for falsifying ultrasound results.

• State and Federal violations of laws against fraudulent billing. (Medicaid fraud)

• Texas Administrative Code violations for failing to properly store and log medication.

• Texas Administrative Code violations for failing to have adequate medical staff,

• Texas Administrative Code violations for failing to observe proper sterilization procedures and disposal practices.

• Violations of Texas laws related to fraudulent concealment of criminal conduct from government authorities.

“The criminal referrals of Karpen to the Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General validate our efforts over the past three years to bring this late-term abortionist to justice,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “The issuance of the referrals completely repudiates the actions of Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson, who committed a gross injustice by protecting Karpen from accountability. May justice finally be done!”

Earlier this week, Operation Rescue reported that Anderson had failed in her bid for re-election. The new district attorney-elect notified Assistant District Attorney Sunni Mitchell that her services are no longer needed. Mitchell handled both the 2013 Karpen grand jury and the 2015 grand jury that falsely indicted pro-life journalists while protecting Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast from prosecution.

Other criminal referrals made by the Select Investigative Panel include:

• StemExpress is a California organ procurement company that contracted with Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses for the acquisition of aborted baby remains. The Panel issued four referrals of StemExpress for HIPAA violations, Institutional Review Board violations, profiting from the sale of aborted baby remains, destroying documents under subpoena.

• University of New Mexico and Southwestern Women’s Options was previously referred to the New Mexico Attorney General for violations of the state anatomical gift act. A supplementary referral was made for failing to provide informed consent.

• An Arkansas abortion facility, Little Rock Family Planning, was referred for possible violations of the law when it sent aborted baby remains to StemExpress.

• DV Biologics was referred for suspected profiting from the sale of aborted baby remains and failing to collect California sales tax. (Read about this company’s connections to Hillary Clinton.)

• Advanced Bioscience Resources was referred for possible illegal profiting from the sale of aborted baby remains.

• A Florida abortion facility, Presidential Women’s Center, was referred for possible illegal sale of aborted baby remains.

• Four Planned Parenthood organizations and an organ procurement company, Novogenix, were referred to the Department of Justice for possible violation of a federal law that prohibits the sale of aborted baby tissue for “valuable consideration.”

“Operation Rescue is grateful to the Select Investigative Panel and to Chairman Marsha Blackburn for their courageous willingness to investigate the shadowy underground world of trafficking in aborted baby remains, and abuses related to illegal abortions and the murder in infants born alive during abortions. We know the Panel underwent constant attacks from the opposition, which wanted desperately to cover up these crimes,” said Newman.

Of the criminal referrals, Blackburn issued the following written statement.

“Speaking as a woman, I am deeply troubled by what we have learned about the mistreatment of patients at a particularly difficult and vulnerable time in their lives. They are being treated with a disregard for their best interests and their rights as patients,” said Chairman Blackburn. “Women deserve better than this. They deserve better than to face any level of deception or pressure. We have seen instances in which profit-driven procurement businesses acting in conjunction with clinics violate women’s privacy rights under HIPAA. We have seen consent forms misrepresenting to women that cures for still uncured diseases have resulted from fetal tissue. It is disturbing to see so many cases where there is barely the pretense of consent or no consent at all before the remains of a baby are taken by researchers.”

Read all criminal referral letters released by the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives.

Read Operation Rescue’s Special Report on its own 2012-2013 investigation of Douglas Karpen (Includes photos referenced by the Select Investigative Panel.)

LifeNews.com Note: Cheryl Sullenger is a leader of Operation Rescue.