In a letter sent to the National Institutes of Health, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said the recent accusations against her group are “categorically false” and that the goal of the organization’s critics has “nothing to do with our fetal tissue donation compliance process.”
Richards adds:
“Today, we’re taking their smokescreen away and pushing forward with our important work on behalf of millions of women, men, and young people.
“The participation by a handful of our affiliates in supporting women who choose to make fetal tissue donation has always been about nothing other than honoring the desire of those women and contributing to life-saving research and cures. In order to completely debunk the disingenuous argument that our opponents have been using — and to reveal the true political purpose of these attacks — our Federation has decided, going forward, that any Planned Parenthood health center that is involved in donating tissue after an abortion for medical research will follow the model already in place at one of our two affiliates currently facilitating donations for fetal tissue research. That affiliate accepts no reimbursement for its reasonable expenses — even though reimbursement is fully permitted under the 1993 law.”
She adds:
I want to be completely clear about two things: First, Planned Parenthood’s policies on fetal tissue donation already exceed the legal requirements. Now we’re going even further in order to take away any basis for attacking Planned Parenthood to advance an anti-abortion political agenda. And, second, our decision not to take any reimbursement for expenses should not be interpreted as a suggestion that anyone else should not take reimbursement or that the law in this area isn’t strong. Our decision is first and foremost about preserving the ability of our patients to donate tissue, and to expose our opponents’ false charges about this limited but important work.
I think that’s fine, although everybody knows that the complaint against PP isn’t really about getting reimbursed for fetal tissue donations. It’s about, and has always been about, abortions.
I mean… before the women-hating conservatives were saying “PP is aborting fetuses so they can sell fetal tissue for profit!”. Now the same conservatives will say, with the same amount of outrage, “PP is aborting fetuses so they can give away the fetal tissue for free!”
My point is that you can’t appease those people, particularly since they aren’t terribly interested in the facts or the truth. I guess PP isn’t trying to. I think they are trying to get the focus on the fetal tissue donations, because that is….you know…. a GOOD thing. Helps cure disease.
Anyway, here’s the full letter:
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