FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOIA DOCUMENTS CONFIRM FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION OF ABORTED BABY ORGAN HARVESTING AT UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
NIH Documents Released Under FOIA Show HHS Office of Inspector General Agents Issued Subpoena to Pitt Concerning Aborted Fetal Kidney Harvesting Program
Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859
WASHINGTON, D.C. Dec. 12—Newly released FOIA documents confirm the existence of a federal law enforcement investigation of an NIH-funded program at the University of Pittsburgh that harvested fetal kidneys from late-term abortions performed by Planned Parenthood doctors.
The documents include email exchanges from late 2021 and early 2022 between NIH leadership, the University’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Research, and an HHS Office of Inspector General agent, which reference a subpoena issued by OIG to investigate fetal organ harvesting in the NIH-funded “GUDMAP” program at Pitt.
In the emails, in September 2021, NIH Deputy Director for Extramural Research Dr. Michael Lauer asks Pitt’s Senior Vice Chancellor for Research Dr. Rob Rutenbar for further information about the “fetal tissue collection procedures associated with the GenitoUrinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project (GUDMAP) Tissue Hub and Collection Site at the University of Pittsburgh.” On November 5, 2021, Pitt’s Dr. Rutenbar writes back to NIH::
“With regard to your request for documentation/information, please be aware that we received a subpoena from HHS OIG requesting similar documentation on October 28, 2021.”
Subsequent emails discuss a conference call about the subpoena and document production schedule. On November 10, 2021, an OIG agent copies NIH on an email titled, “OIG Subpoena – Health Sciences Tissue Bank” and writes: “As far as the OIG subpoena production, please respond in accordance with the date on the subpoena”.
The emails confirm for the first time the existence of a federal law enforcement investigation of the Planned Parenthood-assisted aborted human fetal tissue transfers at the University of Pittsburgh. The Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General describes itself as “the world’s premiere health care law enforcement agency” which “conducts criminal, civil, and administrative investigations of fraud and misconduct related to HHS programs” and whose agents have the authority “to make arrests, conduct surveillance, serve search warrants, seize evidence, and testify in State and Federal proceedings.”
NIH produced the emails earlier this year in response to a FOIA request by Judicial Watch and The Center for Medical Progress. In August 2021, CMP reported on disturbing statements in Pitt’s grant application to be the fetal tissue “distribution hub” for the GUDMAP program, in which Pitt advertised to NIH that it would use labor induction abortions to harvest fetal kidneys, record the time the kidneys were disconnected from blood supply and “minimize” this “warm ischemic time”, and disproportionately target Black and minority patients for this live-abortion harvesting. Planned Parenthood officials run the abortion services in the University of Pittsburgh’s health system, and provide the abortions to supply fetuses for the Health Sciences Tissue Bank at Pitt.
Further information about the operations of the Pittsburgh GUDMAP program continues to surface in CMP’s ongoing FOIA requests with Judicial Watch. In litigation with NIH over the documents, the government has produced the un-redacted version of the scientific references cited in Pitt’s grant application for the GUDMAP program. The references for Pitt’s advertisement “Ischemia time is minimized” are two scientific papers that describe minimizing ischemia time by harvesting tissue samples from donors who are still alive, rather than from organs that have already been cut out of the body. Furthermore, the judge in the FOIA case found, based on admissions submitted by the NIH itself, that the redactions in the documents are meant to protect Pitt’s “commercial interest” and “commercial fortunes” in harvesting aborted fetal organs.
CMP founder and president David Daleiden notes, “Pitt’s own statements indicating its Planned Parenthood partners use criminal partial-birth abortions to harvest fetal organs to sell for NIH grant money are serious enough that a federal law enforcement agency opened a formal investigation following CMP’s reporting. If this investigation has been conducted honestly, the facts uncovered may be more horrifying than we ever imagined. Planned Parenthood has cloaked its human atrocities committed against vulnerable mothers and infants under its ‘research’ program for decades—it is time for justice under the law for every level of the taxpayer-funded enterprise of selling aborted baby body parts.”
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Watch a new video report about the new public records findings here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDcQaPd7Q_8
Find more of CMP’s reporting on fetal experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/human-capital/fetal-experimentation-at-the-university-of-pittsburgh-and-planned-parenthood/
Learn more about CMP at www.centerformedicalprogress.org
