The Campaign of Deception Against Planned Parenthood
A hidden-camera video
released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally
sells tissue from aborted fetuses. It shows nothing of the sort. But it
is the latest in a series of unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood,
which offers health care services to millions of people every year. The
politicians howling to defund Planned Parenthood care nothing about the
truth here, being perfectly willing to undermine women’s reproductive
rights any way they can.
The
nine-minute video clip released by the Center for Medical Progress, an
outfit apparently created in 2013, invites viewers to “Hold Planned
Parenthood accountable for their illegal sale of baby parts.” In it, Dr.
Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical
services, is seen discussing the collection of fetal tissue in a lunch
meeting with two people posing as potential tissue buyers. A second
video, released on Tuesday, shows another Planned Parenthood staff member discussing fetal tissue.
After the first video’s release, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky pledged
to “introduce an amendment to pending Senate legislation to immediately
strip every dollar of Planned Parenthood funding.” Senator Ted Cruz of
Texas called for
defunding and for “an investigation of Planned Parenthood’s activities
regarding the sale and transfer of aborted body parts.” The House Energy
and Commerce Committee is undertaking an investigation, and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have ordered investigations in their states.
The full video
of the lunch meeting, over two hours long and released by the Center
for Medical Progress after complaints by Planned Parenthood, shows
something very different from what these critics claim. Clearly, the
shorter version was edited to eliminate statements by Dr. Nucatola
explaining that Planned Parenthood does not profit from tissue donation,
which requires the clear consent of the patient. Planned Parenthood
affiliates only accept money — between $30 and $100 per specimen,
according to Dr. Nucatola — to cover costs associated with collecting
and transporting the tissue. “This is not something with any revenue
stream that affiliates are looking at,” she said. Under federal law, facilities may be reimbursed for costs associated with fetal tissue donation, like transportation and storage.
According to a letter
sent by Roger Evans, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood, to the House
Energy and Commerce Committee, the video is a result of a yearslong
campaign of deception. The head of the Center for Medical Progress,
David Daleiden, created a fake company called Biomax Procurement
Services almost three years ago for the purpose of tricking Planned
Parenthood employees, the letter alleges, even setting up exhibits at
Planned Parenthood’s national conferences. The letter also says Biomax
offered a Planned Parenthood affiliate $1,600 for a fetal liver and
thymus, presumably to trap the affiliate in the act of accepting a high
payment for fetal tissue. The affiliate declined.
In a statement
on its website, the Center for Medical Progress says it “follows all
applicable laws in the course of our investigative journalism work.”
Anti-abortion
groups have long pushed to defund Planned Parenthood, even though no
federal money is used to provide abortions. But that hasn’t stopped
their efforts to shut down the clinics, which provide services like
contraception, cancer screening and other tests.
The
Center for Medical Progress — which managed to get tax-exempt status in
2013 as a biomedicine charity, according to a report by The Huffington Post — appears
to have done little beyond producing the undercover video. According to
its registration form with the California attorney general, it has three officers:
Mr. Daleiden; Albin Rhomberg, who has participated in anti-abortion
protests; and Troy Newman, the president of the anti-abortion group
Operation Rescue.
In
a statement last week, Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, said that “our donation programs —
like any other high-quality health care providers — follow all laws and
ethical guidelines” and that “Planned Parenthood stands behind our work
to help women and families donate tissue for medical research when they
wish to.”
Researchers
use fetal tissue to study and develop treatments for diseases and
conditions like H.I.V., hepatitis, congenital heart defects, retinal
degeneration and Parkinson’s. Last year, the National Institutes of
Health gave $76 million in grants for fetal tissue research. Planned
Parenthood is certainly not the only collector of fetal tissue — clinics
associated with universities also supply tissue for research.
The
Center for Medical Progress video campaign is a dishonest attempt to
make legal, voluntary and potentially lifesaving tissue donations appear
nefarious and illegal. Lawmakers responding by promoting their own
anti-choice agenda are rewarding deception and putting women’s health
and their constitutionally protected rights at risk.
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