A hearing hosted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) on “baby organ harvesting” featured testimony from Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder and executive director of a progressive anti-abortion organization that previously had one of its members caught storing fetuses at their residence.
The organization, known as the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU), touts itself as being “committed to ending elective abortion no matter how long it takes” from an “anti-capitalist lens.” At the hearing on Tuesday, which was titled “Investigating The Black Market of Baby Organ Harvesting,” Bukovinac shared footage and images of aborted fetuses which PAAU had recovered from medical waste companies.
In the videos, members of the group are shown opening plastic containers holding the aborted fetuses, which they claim were viable, though Bukovinac admits that without an autopsy they can’t be certain.
The organization drew controversy in 2022 after police found five fetuses in the home of PAAU Director of Activism Lauren Handy, reported CNN. Bukovinac further noted that PAAU had taken 115 fetuses from a medical waste truck in 2020 and buried the majority of them in an undisclosed location after they were blessed by a priest.
PAAU members were also prosecuted for blocking access to a reproductive health clinic in 2020 under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), which criminalizes using physical force to block people from accessing reproductive health care facilities. Sentencing on the prosecutions will take place in May this year.
In response to the testimony, Greene vowed to work towards a repeal of the FACE Act.
“We will repeal the FACE Act if we can get our opportunity,” Green said in the hearing.
Aside from Bukovinac, the hearing also took testimony from anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, who famously tried to buy fetal tissue from a Houston Planned Parenthood in 2015 after taking on the false identity of an executive of a biomedical research company.
Daleiden released videos of the discussions with Planned Parenthood as part of allegations that the organization was profiting from fetal tissue sold for medical research, prompting investigations into the organization. Over a dozen states cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing in the matter, reported the Guardian.
Greene’s hearing quickly earned a strong rebuke from President Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign, specifically citing her targeting of the FACE Act.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene: We’ll repeal the FACE Act if we can get an opportunity,” the campaign wrote on X. “The FACE Act prohibits the use of physical force against people receiving reproductive health care and abortion clinics. It was passed in 1994 following many bombings against abortion clinics.”
Other critics of Greene made similar comments online, one of which that said “MTG’s deranged support of repealing the FACE Act is further proof that she supports harassment of abortion providers and their workers/volunteers.”
“Now they want to use physical force to stop women from having the right to their own bodies,” another user added.
It remains unclear whether Greene’s hearing, which was only attended by a handful of people, will lead to any major effect on reproductive rights.
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