Bonnie Watson Coleman: “I am disappointed that we are here today asking the American taxpayers to waste another $800,000 on an unnecessary…”

“I am disappointed that we are here today asking the American taxpayers to waste another $800,000 on an unnecessary, dangerous investigation. This select panel was formed based on fraudulent videos created by anti-abortion extremists to attack Planned Parenthood, an organization that has always fought for women's rights and provides healthcare services to 3 million women and men each year. I was proud to be the first Member of Congress to speak out against these videos immediately after their release. And here we are, a year and a half later, with no evidence of wrongdoing after 17 separate investigations in three House committees, 13 States, and one grand jury. Yet Republicans continue to chase false, inflammatory allegations, at a severe cost to advances in medicine and to the safety of those involved in this lifesaving research. Panel Republicans have conducted themselves in ways reminiscent of Joe McCarthy's abusive tactics: witnesses have been harassed and intimated during testimony; names of researchers, students, clinical personnel, and doctors have been released publicly, placing their lives in great danger; misleading ``exhibits'' have been manufactured; critical documents have been withheld from Democrats; and Republicans have continued to fan the flames of anti-abortion extremism with their inflammatory rhetoric.…”