A top Planned Parenthood official says skirting the law against selling aborted baby parts is “just a matter of line items,” in the fifth video released by The Center for Medical Progress.
It’s a felony to receive “valuable consideration” for aborted baby parts, but it is legal to receive “reasonable payments” for costs associated with the exchange, including but apparently not limited to: transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of the aborted baby tissue. (RELATED: Planned Parenthood Allegations Turn On Squishy McConnell-Backed Law)
“I want you to be paid per specimen, rather than oh, here, just ship this off,” an undercover actor tells Melissa Farrell, director of research at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast — a Texas mega-clinic, in the video. “And if you can [provide specific specimens] and it compensates you and financially that’s helping you to grow your clinic, I’m willing to [pay per specimen].”
“Yeah,” Farrell responds, apparently acknowledging the clinic will grow as a result of the exchanges. “And so if we alter our process [of aborting the baby], and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, then we can make it part of our budget. That any dissections are this [amount], and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. I mean that’s, it’s all just a matter of line items.”
Planned Parenthood doctors discuss fees ranging from $30 to $75 per specimen in the series of undercover videos released by the The Center for Medical Progress so far, but the middlemen they provide tissue then turn around and charge sometimes thousands of dollars to the actual researchers working with the tissue.
The Center for Medical Progress has alleged Planned Parenthood is illegally profiting from its relationship with researchers and middlemen, pointing to the videos as evidence. But Planned Parenthood maintains the fees it charges are legally legitimate and that they do not profit from the exchange. (RELATED: See How The Research Sausage Is Made In Latest Planned Parenthood Video)
In the latest video, the undercover actors visit the clinic’s lab, where aborted babies are stored before being shipped off for incineration. At one point, a worker handling a bag full of dead fetuses laughs at the prospect reaching in and finding a whole one.
“We had a really long day and they’re all mixed up together in a bag,” she says. Pressed, she remembers a 20-week old aborted fetus from that day and pulls a glass dish out of the freezer containing the baby’s remains.
Farrell and the Texas clinic’s Ambulatory Surgery Center Director Tram Nguyen also discuss Planned Parenthood’s switch away from a national policy regarding the fetal tissue “donations.”
“They are encouraging more participation [in fetal tissue procurement], but they don’t want to get too into the mix of it,” Nguyen says in the video.
“Any idea why the other affiliates in Texas think it’s illegal?” Farrell asks.
“Really?” Nguyen responds, apparently surprised and confused.
“Yeah,” Farrell says, explaining in the full cut of the video that another abortion provider in Texas opted against the practice, calling it illegal.
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