A state House Committee will hear tomorrow morning several bills related to abortion that stem from hearings held after videos alleged Planned Parenthood was illegally selling fetal tissue.

Representative Diane Franklin carried the bill that changed the TANF program in the state House.  (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

Representative Diane Franklin (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

A pro-life group last summer released those videos and claimed they showed Planned Parenthood officials discussing the illegal sale of fetal tissue. Investigations in multiple states and Congress did not find evidence Planned Parenthood broke any laws and the makers of the videos have been indicted in Texas, but Representative Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton) still considers the videos credible based on the analysis of digital and forensic firm Coalfire.

“Their analysis was, ‘The recorded media files contained indicates that the video recordings were authentic and they show no evidence of manipulation or editing,'” Franklin read during a recent hearing of the House Committee on Children and Families, which she chairs. “With no certainty can you say that those videos are inaccurate, falsified, or something that we in the State of Missouri should not be concerned about.”

M’Evie Mead with Planned Parenthood Affiliates noted during that hearing that another firm reached a conflicting conclusion.

“They found that the videos were inadmissible because of the manipulation that a certified videology technician found,” said Mead.

Franklin also addressed the indictment.

“I believe that indictment is on falsifying a driver’s license, and the other one is, inconceivably, that the makers were actually really trying to buy the body parts,” said Franklin.

David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were indicted by a Harris County, Texas, grand jury with tampering with a governmental record, and Daleiden is charged with the purchase or sale of human organs.

Republican leaders of the Missouri House and Senate committees who held those hearings said Missouri law isn’t tight enough regarding the handling of fetal remains. Bills to be heard tomorrow, most offered by Franklin, would require that all remains are accounted for, all are viewed by a pathologist, a report on them must be issued and seen by the Department of Health, and that whistleblowers about violation of abortion law be protected. One bill sponsored by Franklin would also change the state law’s definition of “remains of a human fetus,” to remains of the dead offspring of a human being.