Former pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson this week defended research he published in 1992 that involved fetal tissue, arguing that his use of brain tissue from aborted fetuses was not equivalent to Planned Parenthood’s practice of providing specimens to third-party tissue companies after performing abortions.
“Killing babies and harvesting tissue for sale is very different than taking a dead specimen and keeping a record of it, which is exactly the source of the tissue used in our research,” Carson said in a statement Friday.
Carson, a famed neurosurgeon before entering politics and becoming a Republican candidate for president, published research in an academic journal in 1992 based on brain tissue taken from two aborted fetuses.
The research was brought to light Tuesday by obstetrician-gynecologist Jen Gunter, who wrote a blog post taking fault with Carson for criticizing Planned Parenthood and saying that medical research doesn’t rely on the provision of fetal tissue.
Carson, who is pro-life and has spoken out against Planned Parenthood, argued that there is a distinction between his research and the practices that have raised an uproar over Planned Parenthood in recent weeks.
“To not use the tissue that is in a tissue bank, regardless of where it comes from, would be foolish,” Carson said on CNN Thursday. “Why would anybody not do that?”
Carson this week also suggested that racism was behind Planned Parenthood’s abortion and contraceptive services.
“And one of the reasons you find most of their clinics in black neighborhoods is so that you can find ways to control that population,” Carson, who is black, said in an interview with Fox News Wednesday. He tied the organization’s practices to the beliefs of its founder, Margaret Sanger, who was a eugenicist and “not particularly enamored with black people” he said.
Planned Parenthood has been embroiled in controversy this summer because of a string of undercover videos of its employees and partners discussing how to harvest fetal organs for reimbursement.
The pro-life group that created the undercover videos, the Center for Medical Progress, released a video interview this week of a former technician for one of Planned Parenthood’s partner companies claimed workers would take fetal organs and tissue sometimes without the consent of the women undergoing abortions.
The abortion giant receives half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding, which Republicans in Congress have sought to end following the controversy. On Friday, Arkansas became the fourth state to strip Medicaid funding for the organization.
