Planned Parenthood Reacts: We’re Not Selling Baby Parts — We’re Getting Reimbursed for ‘Tissue’ Donations

Planned Parenthood has responded to the video that appears to show a senior official discussing selling body parts of aborted babies:

“In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different. At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or Planned Parenthood. In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.

A well-funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research. Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.”

We should have known this was all about Planned Parenthood’s “lifesaving” altruism. A couple of quick thoughts here. First, since it’s illegal to sell human fetal tissue, we could hardly expect to Planned Parenthood admit to criminal wrongdoing. Watch the tape again. Does it appear to you that the discussion deals only with reimbursement? The Center for Medial Progress — the entity that created the video — has posted a flyer that it claims was distributed to Planned Parenthood clinics and that promises “financial profits” from the “raw materials” that are “usually discarded during obstetrical procedures.” Further inquiry isn’t just reasonable, it’s necessary.

Second, I have to laugh when Planned Parenthood claims to abide by the “highest ethical and legal standards.” Their business model is an abomination. And it is pitiful to use the phrase “appropriate consent” to describe the deliberate killing of an innocent human being, with the killing performed in such a way as to preserve a “menu” of the most valuable parts. The full video is below: