A video surfaced Tuesday that implicated Planned Parenthood’s involvement in a scheme to sell organs and tissues from aborted fetuses. Now, Eric Ferrero, the organization’s vice president of communications, has issued a response.
The video was produced by the pro-life group Center for Medical Progress. It features Dr. Deborah Nucatol, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, discussing the tissue donation programs apparently with two actors posing as employees of a human biologics company. The footage was shot in July of 2014, according to CNN.
Daleiden said in a statement, according to Newsweek: “Planned Parenthood’s criminal conspiracy to make money off of aborted baby parts reaches to the very highest levels of their organization. Elected officials must listen to the public outcry for Planned Parenthood to be held accountable to the law and for our tax dollars to stop underwriting this barbaric abortion business.”
In response to the outrage, Ferrero said this in a press release:
“In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, such as treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different. At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood. In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.
“A well funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research. Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.”
A shorter, edited version of the video had been viewed more than 1.1 million times on YouTube by midday Wednesday.
Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
