Knight voted to create committee intimidating scientists and medical researchers
Today, House Republicans’ “witch hunt” against women’s health access continues, with their wasteful Select Committee holding its second hearing of the year this afternoon. Vulnerable Congressman Steve Knight voted in favor of creating the committee last October, despite the fact that multiple investigations cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing pertaining to the misleading videos created by anti-choice activists who have since been indicted.
Knight has said he’s not “a fan” of Planned Parenthood, which he would defund despite the lifesaving health services its centers provide to over 800,000 California women and their families.
The Republican Select Committee’s efforts to villainize Planned Parenthood are a retread of the repeated, politically-motivated attacks on the organization that are the hallmark of Knight’s House Republican conference. The Republican-led committee Knight voted to create is abusing its power to pursue their anti-women’s health agenda, and it’s wasting hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars.
And as evidenced by today’s hearing, Republicans are now using the committee to intimidate doctors and medical researchers.
Republicans have now issued subpoenas for the names of medical researchers trying to cure cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases in their continued effort to ruin Planned Parenthood and take away its funding, which means women’s health suffers for Steve Knight’s agenda.
“Steve Knight’s vote for the House Republicans’ Select Committee makes him responsible for its attacks on women’s health and going after cancer researchers,” said Barb Solish of the DCCC. “Families in California’s 25th District deserve a Member of Congress who will do everything they can to protect women’s health. Instead, Knight has given his Republican colleagues carte blanche to intimidate cancer researchers in the name of attacking Planned Parenthood.”