Story highlights The use of human fetal tissue has been a political flashpoint since the 1990sGrassley's report claimed US agencies had failed to monitor the industry(CNN) The Justice Department is looking into Planned Parenthood's practices related to human fetal tissue, according to a letter obtained by CNN. The letter -- from the Justice Department's head of its Office of Legislative Affairs -- does not mention Planned Parenthood by name but asks the Senate Judiciary Committee to turn over unredacted documentation supporting a December 2016 report titled "Human Fetal Tissue Research," which purports to describe the organization's practices. "At this point, the records are intended for investigative use only," Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd wrote. The use of human fetal tissue -- which is used to study a number of diseases -- has proved to be a political flashpoint for decades. Federal law prohibits the receipt of any " valuable consideration " for fetal tissue, while permitting "reasonable payments" for costs, including "transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control or storage of human fetal tissue."

Source: CNN December 08, 2017 03:56 UTC