A U.S. anti-abortion group has released new footage allegedly showing a Planned Parenthood representative discussing the price of tissue and organs from aborted fetuses for profit. But the reproductive health organization argues the videos are manipulated to deceive the public.
This is the fifth “undercover” video to be released in recent weeks and the first following a failed senate vote on a bill to defund the abortion and reproductive healthcare provider.
READ MORE: Human fetal tissue long used for variety of medical studies
The Irvine, California-based Center For Medical Progress, which has released the series of videos since July 14, alleges Planned Parenthood is profiting from the sale of aborted fetus parts.
“Planned Parenthood’s system-wide conspiracy to evade the law and make money off of aborted fetal tissue is now undeniable,” the Center’s founder David Daleiden said in a statement. “There is no reason for an organization that uses illegal abortion methods to sell baby parts and commit such atrocities against humanity to still receive over $500 million each year from taxpayers.”
What do you see in the videos?
In the latest video, said to be taken in April, the Centre sent a man and woman posing as “buyers” to meet with officials from a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Houston.
A woman identified as the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast director of research Melissa Farrell, appears to discuss selling tissue and organs from fetuses or, in some instances, explaining how procedures can be adjusted to ensure a fetus remains intact.
“If we alter a process and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, it’s all just a matter of line items,” Farrell said in the video posted online Tuesday.
The “specimens ” are to be used for research and the money, according to Planned Parenthood, is to cover the costs incurred from obtaining, preserving and shipping “specimens.”
Using a hidden camera, the man and woman go into the pathological laboratory and coax staff into showing them “fetal body parts freshly available” so they can see how “intact” organ specimen are.
Earlier videos also feature officials and doctors from the Planned Parenthood Foundation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates discussing, in a very matter-of-fact or sometimes candid way, how to remove the fetus while keeping organs intact and the fees Planned Parenthood would want.
READ MORE: Second Planned Parenthood video shows official discussing fetal tissue
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Is it legal for Planned Parenthood to accept money for organs and tissue?
It is illegal, as the anti-abortion group noted, to buy or sell human body parts for profit. But it is legal for Planned Parenthood to be compensated for the costs of obtaining, preserving and transferring the organs and tissue collected from the remains that will be provided for medical research — including stem cell research.
The women who undergo an abortion must consent to donating the tissue and the donation must not be for profit.
Who’s compensating for tissue?
Organizations procure and sell fetal tissue and organs from abortion providers to be used by medical researchers, according to the New York Times.
One of them is StemExpress — “a multi-million dollar company that supplies human blood, tissue products, primary cells and other clinical specimens to biomedical researchers around the world to fuel regenerative medicine and translational research.”
Novogenix Laboratories Inc., which was mentioned in one of the “undercover” videos, says it is a “source for human primary tissue-specific stem cells for medical and life science research.”
Another company is San Francisco-based Advance Bioscience Resources (ABR), which calls itself a “service provider to the life science industry.”
According to Vocativ, ABR president Linda Tracy said tissue collected from fetuses is important for medical research in the fight against diseases and illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, diabetes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gherig’s Disease.
“Women should have the right to donate their tissue if they wish to and it’s a benefit for the world if they can,” Voactiv reported Tracy saying. “It’s a shame that it’s being described as an evil.”
What does Planned Parenthood have to say about the videos?
Planned Parenthood insists the videos are a part of “smear campaign” against the organization by “extremists.”
READ MORE: Abortions declining in nearly all U.S. states
The video shared Tuesday, as with the previous ones, is heavily edited and abruptly jumps from one part of the conversation to another or one setting to another.
“The footage released today doesn’t show Planned Parenthood staff engaged in any wrongdoing or agreeing to violate any legal or medical standards,” PPFA Executive Director Dawn Laguens said in a statement after the release of the latest video.
Laguens also pointed to the manipulation of the footage as proof the Centre is skewing what actually happened in the interactions with Planned Parenthood staff. “For example, one video was edited to make it look like a doctor said she would ‘sell’ fetal tissue for a profit – when in fact she said the exact opposite, 10 separate times, and nearly all instances were edited out of the tape,” she said.
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