Turning the Heat Up On HHS Secretary Sibelius

A few days ago, I shared in a post how Iowa 5th District Congressman Steve King (R) sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius asking her to show how she is being sure that no federal monies are being used by Planned Parenthood to fund telemed abortions. Congressman King isn't the only one in the US House of Representatives that wants ti know how well HHS is doing its job of watching over how the money is spent by PP.

In a piece for BigGovernment.com Florida 6th District Congressman Cliff Stearns (R) has announce that he has a few questions to ask about Planned parenthood & HHS oversite as well.

After looking at what has recently come out about PP he goes on to say: "Although Planned Parenthood is barred from using taxpayer funds to perform abortions, these dollars are fungible, federal funding allows the group to use other funds for abortions.
In 1997, the group received $160 million from taxpayers and performed 160,000 abortions. Last year, it received some $360 million and performed over 324,000 abortions. As taxpayer funding increased, so did the number of these life-ending procedures.
While working to defund this organization, as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, I also plan to hold a hearing with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, testifying on why taxpayers should support Planned Parenthood.
I also want her to address what steps she has ordered to get this group to obey state and federal laws, which should be demanded of any beneficiary of federal funding.
Defunding Planned Parenthood should be a fiscal and moral priority for Congress, and for the American people."

The Congressman points out something that PP & its supporters like to ignore, the money they get is fungible. So even though it may not directly fund abortions, PP can still be using it indirectly to promote & provide them.

It will be interesting to see how Sibelius acts when she has to testify. Given her buddy buddy track record with Planned Parenthood, George Tiller & the abortion industry in general as governor of Kansas (& defying her bishop as well) I suspect she hasn't done any better in enforcing the law now than she did back then. In fact i suspect that she has been just as lax & just as willing to look the other way.

As for why keep funding, I suspect she will have to come up with something better then the usual "women's health" lie that is so easily discredited by PP's track record.
Politco reports that Stearns isn't going to let her off easy either. It says that "Stearns threatened to ask the Department of Justice to investigate Sebelius if she refuses to answer questions before the Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which he heads.
“We’re going to bring Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius, put her under oath in the spring and ask her to explain what is she doing about these videos,” Stearns said Thursday, flanked by anti-abortion activists at a press conference on Capitol Hill, including the president of the group that recorded and released the videos.
“We’re not going to wait for Attorney General [Eric] Holder to do anything,” he added, as supporters clapped and cheered. “And if she lies, then we’re going to ask the attorney general to investigate her.”"

I am not holding my breath for Holder to do what he should & start investigating PP now as he should. But this is turning the heat up on him. & it will turn the heat up on state Attorneys General like Iowa's Tom Miller as well. His track record is less than sterling when it comes to PP.
He is facing an ethics charge because of his dealings with them.

What this does show is that more light will be shone on PP's darkness. & they are panicking. They have set up a special page for their supporters to contact Congress to tell them to keep funding in for PP.

At this point the tide is going against PP. But it isn't over yet. & for now we can't just sit back & be silent. We must contact our representatives on the National as well as state level & tell them no more funding for PP. & we must keep getting the word out to others as well.

I am sure we will be seeing more stories come out like the ones I have shared. & like them, they won't be pretty. But the will show PP for the evil organization that it is.

H/T: Jill Stanek (House committee to grill Sebelius on Planned Parenthood; will ask DOJ to investigate if she “refuses to answer” or “lies”)