The 'Handshake' Photo Taken Down at a Congressional Hearing

A congressional hearing on Tuesday was suddenly and dramatically interrupted—by the chairwoman conducting it.

Her aim: Abort a Republican congressman's attempt to present the very first photo of a person who is now 22 years old.

The scene was the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. The title of the hearing: "Roe Reversal: The Impacts of Taking Away the Constitutional Right to an Abortion."

Republican Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama began to ask a question of Dr. Christina Francis, the CEO-elect of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

"I want to show a poster," Palmer said to Francis, as a staffer behind him began to hold up a photograph. "This is world-renown. It has gone—"

A gavel slammed down ferociously at the front of the hearing room.

"… on all types of magazines—" Palmer tried to continue.

"The gentleman will suspend, and the staff will take down that picture," declared Chairwoman Diana DeGette, a Democrat from Colorado.

"We'll take it down," Palmer said calmly.

"In this committee," she declared, "we admit documents and photographs on unanimous consent bases, and this has not been—"

"I accept the chair's ruling," Palmer said.

"Excuse me," DeGette said. "This has not been shown to the majority and it has not been agreed to and there is no foundation, and we will not allow it to be displayed and we will not allow it to be submitted for the record."

"I am not surprised," Palmer responded.

"That's the ruling of the chair," said DeGette. "The gentlemen is recognized."

"I am not surprised at all that you would not want to show this photo of an in-utero surgery in which the child being operated on grasps the finger of the doctor doing the surgery. That picture was taken in 1999. And—"

"Having not seen the photo, I cannot comment as to what it is," DeGette said. "The gentlemen decided not to share it with the majority."

And DeGette, obviously, had decided not to let her subcommittee be used as a venue to share it with the world.

"OK," Palmer said to DeGette. "But the individual in the photo is now 22 years old. His name is Sam."

https://cnsnews.com/commentary/terence-p-jeffrey/handshake-photo-taken-down-congressional-hearing

The photo shows a baby's arm coming out of the incision made by surgeons to perform the surgery on him in-utero for spina bifida. The baby grabbed the finger of the surgeon.

Google has seen fit to censor this photo. I am unable to find it using multiple search terms.

Here is the photo. No wonder they want it to not be seen.