House panel announces first hearing on Planned Parenthood

The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled its first hearing on Planned Parenthood, ensuring that the controversy over fetal tissue takes center stage when Congress returns from recess.

{mosads}The House panel announced that it will hold a hearing called “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining the Horrific Abortion Practices at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider.”

The hearing, which takes place on lawmakers’ second day back from recess, will be the first of many on Planned Parenthood this fall.

It will occur as GOP leadership in the House and Senate decide on a game plan for avoiding a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding, which many conservatives are calling for.

The committee has not yet announced witnesses for the hearing.

Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said Wednesday that she hadn’t been informed of the hearing but plans to “cooperate fully.”

“We have not been told what the focus of this hearing is, beyond its provocative title, and we look forward to learning more about it,” she said in a statement.

The women’s healthcare provider, which receives about $500 million in federal funding, has been the target of nine secretly recorded videos released by an anti-abortion group since July 14.

That group, The Center for Medical Progress, has attempted to portray Planned Parenthood and its partners as traffickers of fetal body parts. The footage does not show any apparent illegal activity, but the bluntness of the discussions recorded has stirred a national backlash.

“Every human life is sacred and should be protected from the atrocities allegedly committed by Planned Parenthood,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) wrote in a statement on Facebook.

The panel is one of several House committee looking into the claims made in the videos as part of an investigation ordered in July by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).