FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL — Sen. Ted Cruz has called for the Washington, D.C., medical examiner to conduct a “proper investigation” into whether a D.C. abortionist illegally aborted babies in violation of the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act.

Cruz, R-Texas, reacted Wednesday to a Daily Signal report in which a lawyer alleged that the Department of Justice had advised the medical examiner to discard the remains of five aborted preemie-sized babies.

Those babies’ remains are from an abortion clinic in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood of the District of Columbia. Pro-life activists believe the baby bodies are evidence that a D.C. abortionist was performing illegal abortions, but for two years now, D.C. authorities have stonewalled any questions about the babies’ deaths.

“Tragically, the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office is in possession of the remains of babies who were victims of late-term abortions,” Cruz told The Daily Signal. “The DOJ is now pressuring the medical examiner to destroy evidence and dispose of the remains. Instead of investigating whether these late-term abortions violated the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, the DOJ is focused on destroying evidence and prosecuting pro-life protesters.”

“Destroying evidence is a grave threat to the rule of law, and it is another tragic chapter in the Biden DOJ’s sad history of having two justice systems,” the Texas senator added.

“The medical examiner should reject the DOJ’s lawless order to destroy evidence and instead conduct a proper investigation into whether these late-term abortions violated the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, or, at minimum, allow for an autopsy by an outside group.”

The Daily Signal reported late Monday that Thomas More Society lawyer Martin Cannon said he “got a call from the Medical Examiner’s Office indicating that the DOJ has advised them that there is no reason to keep those babies anymore.”

Cannon, who is representing pro-life activists charged by the DOJ, told The Daily Signal that “the Medical Examiner’s Office accordingly tells me that if we don’t have an order to the contrary, by the end of this week, a court order, they will dispose of the babies.”

The DOJ declined to comment on the matter, but the medical examiner’s general counsel, Rod Adams, denied to The Daily Signal that the medical examiner had communicated with the DOJ. Adams has not answered multiple requests for further comment.

Cannon insisted that Adams had, in fact, told Cannon that he had communicated with the DOJ.

“It’s pretty plain to me that Mr. Adams has communicated with the federal government during the case to inform them or get their input on my conversations with him,” he said.

Cruz previously accused the DOJ in August 2023 of “aggressively targeting” pro-life activists while failing to properly investigate the slew of attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers throughout the country.

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