The state Senate will hold a hearing tomorrow as part of its investigation of whether Planned Parenthood is breaking any laws in Missouri, and some of its attention will be on Columbia.
Senator David Sater (R) (photo courtesy; Missouri Senate)
The newly-formed Senate Committee on the Sanctity of Life will hear from the Department of Health and Senior Services about the resumption of abortions at the Planned Parenthood facility in Columbia.
Co-Chairman David Sater (R-Cassville) says he and other Republicans want to ask questions about the permit process, “to make sure that it was done according to the rules and regulations of the Department of Health. It seemed to us as though it happened awfully quick.”
Sater says the committee will also investigate whether the illegal sale of fetal tissue was taking place in Missouri, as some allege Planned Parenthood has done in other states.
“We will be asking the Department of Health and Senior Services what their take is on it, and what kind of investigation that they’re going to be doing on this.”
Those allegations have been based on videos released by an organization that opposes abortion. Critics of those videos say they are misleading and the committee is purely political. Sater says it’s anything but.
“I would respond that this is life and death,” Sater told Missourinet. “When you’re talking about an unborn child that is having … the skull cracked and the body parts harvested, I think this is obnoxious to any person.”
University of Missouri political science professor Peverill Squire says on that issue, the committee is not likely to find anything.
“What we’ve learned at the state level … is that most Planned Parenthood organizations are not involved in this particular activity,” said Squire.
Missourinet will carry a live stream of that hearing tomorrow on our website.
