Planned Parenthood no longer will accept payments for aborted fetal tissue, after a string of undercover videos highlighted its participation in the practice and put the group under heavy fire from Republicans and abortion foes.
On Tuesday, the women’s health and abortion provider wrote a letter to the National Institutes of Health, saying it will no longer accept any financial compensation for providing the tissue to human tissue companies, who in turn sell it to medical researchers.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said she and other top officials made the decision not because they did anything wrong, but because they want to “take the smokescreen away” from Republicans attacking her group with claims that it profited from the tissue.
The videos from anti-abortion investigator David Daleiden show that some Planned Parenthood clinics are paid for supplying aborted fetal tissue. While it’s legal to be compensated for the overhead costs of providing the tissue, it’s illegal to profit from the practice.
“I want to be completely clear about two things: First, Planned Parenthood’s policies on fetal tissue donation already exceed the legal requirements,” Richards wrote to NIH. “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,” she added.
Planned Parenthood says the handful of its clinics that provide fetal tissue may still keep doing so as long as they don’t accept any reimbursements. Only some clinics in California and Washington state are currently providing the tissue, while the affiliate in Oregon supplies placental tissue, according to the group.
A 1993 law lifted a ban on research using fetal tissue from elective abortions. Planned Parenthood has said it has always operated within the boundaries of that law.
But the videos, which have sparked the biggest backlash yet against the country’s largest abortion provider, contained footage showing top Planned Parenthood directors appearing to negotiate the compensation. Republicans have said that’s evidence Planned Parenthood broke the law, but they have been unable to prove the group was paid beyond $40 to $60 for each fetus, a price that could be considered reasonable under current law.
Four GOP-led congressional committees are investigating Planned Parenthood, and Republicans are trying to strip the group’s federal funding as part of a budget reconciliation package that also would repeal the Affordable Care Act.
