WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid defended abortion provider Planned Parenthood Tuesday amidst two controversial undercover sting operation videos showing a Planned Parenthood officials discussing in detail the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts after an abortion.
“Human fetal tissue has been critically important for biomedical research for a long long time. It was even used to help the polio vaccine. In fact, the Nobel Prize was awarded because of this. These politically motivated videos raise some questions, but nothing I’ve seen indicates Planned Parenthood violated federal law,” Reid said when asked by The Daily Caller at his weekly presser on his thoughts about the most recent video that surfaced.
“These edited videos should not take away from the important work Planned Parenthood does on behalf of women. All organizations need to be abiding by the law and if they don’t, it should be looked into and that’s what’s happening right now,” he said.
Other Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, defended the Planned Parenthood last week when the first video was posted by the Center for Medical Progress.
“Well I think there’s been a kind of misrepresentation of the conversation that took place in the transcript in the conversation in the video that they have,” Pelosi told The Daily Caller, saying that it was made “very clear” by Planned Parenthood that the organization does not engage in fetal organ trafficking, noting, “I think that is the fact.”
“I don’t know why they need an investigation,” Pelosi said of the House hearings that were called to investigate the organization as a result of the video’s contents.
More undercover sting videos of Planned Parenthood personnel are reportedly expected to be released in the coming weeks.