Richards says only one Planned Parenthood affiliate is currently being paid for body parts but admits that four other affiliates previously had relationships with companies buying fetal body parts but those relationships have ended since the release of the undercover videos.
Richards says the $60 per “tissue specimen” is a “modest reimbursement” and “these amounts were intended to recover only their costs.” However, she provides no reasoning or accounting for why $60 per tissue specimen is an accurate reimbursement of Planned Parenthood’s supposed costs considering employees of tissue procurement companies like StemExpress would routinely collect the body parts and ship them. No explanation or demonstration is given for this reimbursement even as Planned Parenthood admits that it’s guidance to affiliates says the affiliate “must be able to demonstrate the reimbursement represents its actual costs.” If the affiliate must demonstrate the reimbursement reflects actual costs, then where is that demonstration?
The Center for Medical Progress, the group behind the undercover videos has released a statement regarding Planned Parenthood’s letter which says:
Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards makes two key admissions today in Planned Parenthood’s letter to Congress: that Planned Parenthood gets paid $60 per baby body part harvested, and that Planned Parenthood doctors alter their abortion procedures to get higher-quality body parts. Both of these admissions speak to Planned Parenthood’s financial benefit and profit motive for supplying fetal tissue, and both are the points CMP’s videos have documented and illustrated from the very beginning. When a Tissue Procurement Organization handles all dissection, packaging, and shipping of fetal organs, and all Planned Parenthood does is spend 10 minutes consenting a patient, the $60 per body part harvested quickly adds up to illegal baby parts profit for Planned Parenthood. And when a Planned Parenthood doctor manipulates the abortion to get higher-quality baby parts, they are prizing Planned Parenthood’s financial interests ahead of women’s health.
Regarding the changing of abortion procedures to obtain the desired fetal tissue, Richards writes,
In performing the selected method, a physician may need to make multiple adjustments to the method as the surgery proceeds. These adjustments are clinical judgments – not a change of method – made by the physician as the abortion proceeds and are always intended to achieve the woman’s desired result as safely as possible......Our understanding, however, is that even adjustments that facilitate fetal tissue donations rarely occur at our few clinics that offer women this service.
This directly contradicts what Planned Parenthood’s own medical director Deborah Nucatola was caught on tape saying. In the first undercover video released, Nucatola was very open in describing to actors how she would "huddle" with staffers at the start of the day to discuss what body parts were needed and that she would intentionally "crush above" and below the torso in an effort to obtain intact fetal organs. This was not done to make the abortion as safe as possible for the woman but done solely to obtain the desired organs.
Planned Parenthood has been caught selling the body parts of children killed at their clinics. They have still not provided any evidence that the money they receive for these parts is only reimbursement for their costs. Planned Parenthood abortionists have been caught discussing their willingness and intent in changing abortion techniques to obtain intact organs to sell. They have still not provided any evidence that changing the technique is done for the safety of the woman.
