Jefferson City — The Missouri Senate adopted Senator Kurt Schaefer’s, R-Columbia, resolutions today enforcing subpoenas issued by the president pro tempore to Mary Kogut of Planned Parenthood and Dr. James Miller of Pathology Services, Inc. Both have refused to testify and produce documents requested by the Senate Interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life Committee last summer.
“We have made it clear that no personally identifiable information is requested,” Sen. Schaefer said.
“We have been working with their attorneys, and I believe we will receive some sort of documents by April 25. If not, we have the option of moving to the next step in this process, which would be to file another resolution outlining the possible punishments for contempt.”
Senator Schaefer said Senate Resolution 1793 and Senate Resolution 1794 give ample time for Planned Parenthood and Pathology Services, Inc. to appear before the Senate Committee of the Whole by 2 p.m. on April 25.
“This is about keeping the integrity of the process,” Sen. Schaefer said. “We don’t know what documents they have that will provide us with the information on how they dispose of fetal tissue. The constitutional power we have exercised is merely to get our questions answered and our doubts clarified.”
The subpoena was originally issued to exercise the Senate’s ability to gather outside information important to an investigation. While it has been done in the past, there is no record of anyone being in contempt or refusing to comply with a Senate issued subpoena until now. The resolutions adopted today recognize that both Kogut of Planned Parenthood and Miller of Pathology Services, Inc. failed to comply with official Senate requests and have not given lawful excuse for their noncompliance.