Last year, a series of undercover videos exposed appeared to show Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the sale of fetal body parts from some of their abortion clinics.

These videos triggered a Congressional investigation into the relationship between the abortion industry and “fetal procurement organizations” and whether or not there is any “buying and selling” or profit being made, which is against the law.

Last week Rep. Marsha Blackburn sat down with The Daily Signal to give an update on the progress of the House’s Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, which runs through the end of the year.

Most pro-lifers focus solely on Planned Parenthood’s role in “selling” aborted fetal body parts, but Rep. Blackburn did a good job of explaining why this is much larger than just Planned Parenthood.

I spoke about this last year with Dr. Stacy Trasancos, who has noted that, “Planned Parenthood could shut down completely tomorrow, but the use of aborted fetuses and fetal body parts will not stop.”

Currently the panel is investigating the “buyers”, seeking bank records from fetal procurement agencies — who then sell them to researchers — in order to determine whether they, too, are making a profit from the sale of aborted fetal body parts.

On one invoice, they found taxes being charged on the sale of “baby brains”. Said Blackburn,

If you’re charging tax, that would lead you to believe that it’s not like our organ donation programs… that this is something that has moved into a profit motive structure, and we’re very concerned about what that does to women and babies.

This “profit motive structure,” notes Blackburn, turns every pregnant woman into a “profit center” not just for abortion clinics, but for fetal procurement agencies, as well.

There is already evidence that some procurement companies work with abortion clinics to review medical files of women scheduled to have an abortion – without their consent – in order to assign body parts orders to babies who match the requested gestational age and sex.

But, what happens when the demand outweighs the supply? Something Rebecca and I also discussed in this episode of BioTalk.

In one of the undercover videos, Cate Dyer, CEO of StemExpress, admitted that they were working with “almost like triple digit number clinics (not all PP) and we still need more.”

So, what’s next? They’re already obtaining confidential info on women scheduled for abortion. Will abortion clinics give them info on all pregnant women who come in possibly seeking abortion?

Blackburn did not say what type of action or suggestions we can expect to come from the Select Panel investigation, but I only see one solution: We need to stop using tissue from abortion in research.

For decades the use of fetal material has been a research tactic that is 1) considered ethical and legal, 2) coordinated across continents if necessary, 3) funded by governments and private foundations, 4) demanded by industry, and 5) applauded by the scientific community.

The longer this remains a common, legal practice, the more the scientific community drives the demand for aborted fetal body parts.

We should be treating this much like we treated the embryonic stem cell debate — putting pressure on 1. lawmakers to defund and outlaw this research and 2. scientists to pursue ethical alternatives. If we do not, we risk ending up with a medical system that is inextricably linked to the abortion industry.