More to the story of my inquiry into fetal tissue transfers

A Dec. 18 opinion column ('Grassley's call for investigation revisits old ground”) neglected to tell the facts of the Senate Judiciary Committee's inquiry on tissue transfers from aborted fetuses. The resulting committee report is based on a law Congress passed on fetal tissue research in 1993 which said the government could fund certain types of fetal tissue research but with the condition that it would be a crime to buy or sell fetal tissue. The law allows organizations involved to recover only certain narrow categories of costs, like shipping fees. The report documents how both parties in Congress agreed at the time that it would be abhorrent to allow a marketplace for human fetuses to be created.

The Senate Judiciary Committee's oversight found that in the 23 years since the law was passed, it hasn't been enforced. The Justice Department - in both Republican and Democratic administrations - has never prosecuted anyone for breaking it. The Department has only twice investigated potential violations of the law.

The risks of being investigated, let alone prosecuted, for violations have ‎been slim to none, leaving companies free to interpret this federal law as they wish. The report states: 'As a result, contrary to the intent of the law, companies have charged thousands of dollars for specimens removed from a single aborted fetus; they have claimed the fees they charged only recovered acceptable costs when they had not, in fact, conducted any analysis of their costs when setting the fees; and their post hoc accounting rationalizations invoked indirect and tenuously-related costs in an attempt to justify their fees.”

How can anyone realistically claim their payments were only to cover their costs, when they didn't even try to figure out what the costs were when they got the payments? It doesn't add up. And when I asked the organizations for an explanation of the costs, the answers they created in response didn't match what the law allows.

Despite what the column asserted, the committee report isn't based on undercover videos released last year. It's based on documents I received directly from the companies involved in fetal tissue transfers, including Planned Parenthood.

Justice Department officials should appropriately investigate and enforce the law. It's their job to do that. And it's my job to hold them accountable

' U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.