HHS has conducted ZERO oversight of Planned Parenthood since 2007 -- the story next on FOT

An exclusive report by Stream reporter and attorney Rachel Alexander has the details of the

Rachel Alexander

investigation and she will join Deacon Mike Manno and Gina Noll Tuesday on FOT.

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 states that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) should be auditing Planned Parenthood, as Planned Parenthood is involved in research on aborted fetuses and HHS is supports this work with funding. The Stream filed its FOIA request with HHS in July, asking for documents and emails related to Planned Parenthood and the audits. The initial response on August 24, the deadline, was that they had no documents fitting the description of the public records that The Stream had requested.

Continuing to press for information, The Stream has received redacted emails and several letters from HHS to Congress stating that “The NIH [HHS] did not provide any financial support for human fetal tissue transplantation research [after 2007].” The question posed by Ms. Alexander is: “If this is accurate, what about all the harvesting of fetal body parts that Planned Parenthood itself categorizes as research? HHS provides Planned Parenthood with the majority of its federal funding, and has continued to do so up to the present.”

Additionally, most of the emails HHS sent to The Stream were heavily redacted, without explanation. In response to the redactions, Steve Aden, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, notes: “The FOIA Statute wasn’t intended to empower the government to stonewall the public,” he responded. “Using FOIA as a shield to keep its own deliberations on how to ‘spin’ its decisions to the public secret is a flagrant violation to the letter and spirit of the law.”

In addition, Rachel has been reporting on the case of a high school football coach, Joe Kennedy, who is being threatened with dismissal if he continues to lead prayers after games. She currently writes for numerous e-zines on the web, including The Stream, and the International Oracle Syndicate. Employed as a Deputy County Attorney with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona, Rachel is a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona, where she practiced Commercial and Administrative Law and a former cyberlaw attorney for GoDaddy, a software corporation in Scottsdale, Arizona. She also does pro bono work referred to her by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious constitutional rights organization in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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