Planned Parenthood President Slams 'Fetal Tissue Selling' Video As Untrue, Apologizes For Staffer's Statements
This past Tuesday, a video was released to the public alleging to show a Planned Parenthood staffer discussing the sale of fetal body parts obtained after an abortion.
Earlier today, the organization, via its president, Cecile Richards, officially addressed these accusations with a video of their own. Richards' response? It's completely and utterly untrue.
The original video, both in its edited and longer three-hour version, indisputably shows Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services, Deborah Nucatola, engaging in a conversation with two other individuals over lunch, who are now believed to have been masquerading as representatives for a medical research company interested in getting ahold of fetal tissue.
Nucatola, numerous times, discusses the process of harvesting tissue from the aftermath of an abortion procedure, at one point elaborating on the need to 'crush' below and above the chest area of a later term fetus, in order to keep intact their liver, heart, and lung.
There is also the mention of money ($30 to $100) being allocated for these efforts, which the producers of the video, the Center For Medical Progress, and many in the redder parts of the political spectrum, have seized upon as inconvertible proof that the organization is profiting off the abortions that some of its clinics provide.
But Planned Parenthood's defenders have claimed that the conversation, morbid as it might seem to outsiders, is entirely focused on the widespread practice of fetal tissue donation and that any monetary figures discussed are solely for the cost of sending these donations to a facility — a claim that Richards reaffirms unequivocally.
“I want to be really clear: the allegation that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true,” Richards said in the video. “Our donation programs, like any other high-quality health care providers, follow all laws and ethical guidelines.” (At another point of the video, Nucatola said that "nobody should be 'selling' tissue")
While dismissing the video as deceptive propaganda created by individuals who disagree with their efforts to provide abortion — along with many other educational and medical services — to women, Richards does take the time to apologize for Nucatola, who isn't referenced by name. According to Richards, Nucatola spoke "in a way that does not reflect that compassion [that Planned Parenthood always aims for]. This is unacceptable, and I personally apologize for the staff member’s tone and statements."