Planned Parenthood stops taking money for fetal tissue donations

Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday that it will no longer accept any reimbursement as part of its fetal tissue donation program, taking its strongest step yet to end the onslaught of conservative attacks against the group.

The group’s president Cecile Richards disclosed the policy change in a letter to the National Institutes of Health, which she said was intended to “take away any basis for attacking Planned Parenthood to advance an anti-abortion political agenda.”

“This new policy removes beyond the shadow of a doubt the ludicrous idea that Planned Parenthood has any financial interest in tissue donation — and shows the real agenda behind these attacks,” Richards wrote in a statement.

Planned Parenthood stops taking money for fetal tissue donations

Brilliant move on the part of Planned Parenthood! This decision yanks the teeth out of any argument that Planned Parenthood is motivated to urge women into abortions so that their doctor's can purchase Lamborghinis with the profits! LOL

I doubt though, that this strategy will prevent Planned Parenthood from offering women the option of donating fetal tissue, as the market is such that I would suspect that the program could remain in place through grant programs and such. Nothing really need change, except for the billing and the paperwork involved will be eliminated!

What an easy peasy way to resolve such a sticky situation! Kudos to Cecile Richards! Girl, you earn every penny of that salary

Now I wonder, what outrage will the Republicans and the Right Wingnuts manufacture to keep the momentum up for the push to defund Planned Parenthood or shut down the government?

a reply to: windword

That was smart! But I'm sure the GOP will fine SOME way to throw a wrench in the works.

a reply to: windword

While I agree that this was a very smart move on their part, I don't believe it is going to make a difference. The extreme Right and the GOP will not back down whatsoever. We're talking about a group of people that refused to look at the PP videos in proper context and are willing to spread lies and propaganda for their agenda. All it's going to take is a few more lies to keep the outrage machine running.

On a side note: I find it humorous that they claim abortion is bad because it is immoral and such, yet they are willing to lie to push their agenda. Isn't lying immoral and unethical? Did god say that one sin was worse than any other? Aren't these liars as bad as these "baby killers"?

About time, they should have never started selling the tissue in the first place.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
About time, they should have never started selling the tissue in the first place.

So, you're opposed to fetal tissue and stem cell research and therapies?

originally posted by: windword

originally posted by: Bluntone22
About time, they should have never started selling the tissue in the first place.

So, you're opposed to fetal tissue and stem cell research and therapies?

Nope, research the hell out of it. Hell make donating the tissue mandatory.
Just don't sell it..

a reply to: Bluntone22

Planned Parenthood wasn't selling "it", they were recouping the expenses involved in storing and exchanging "it". But, this move won't stop the actual selling of fetal body parts and tissues.

a reply to: windword

You know that the right is just going to look at this as validation of their beliefs right?

Right wing nut: "See! They obviously were in the wrong if they are stopping the practice now. Why else would they do it? Clearly they are close to coming down on PP"

Besides, it's too little too late.

Planned Parenthood Probes Find No Wrongdoing, But The Damage Has Been Done

"The videos, as dishonest as the videos are, have had their intended effect," said Sara Rosenbaum, a professor in health law and policy at George Washington University. "They gave everybody the platform to work from that they had lacked up until now."

On the federal level, the government was almost shut down in an effort to slash $528 million in funding to Planned Parenthood. On the state level, some Republican governors cut the organization out of their Medicaid programs. Several states stopped directing federal Title X funding to the group. Title X pays for cancer screenings, contraception and tests sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for low-income women.

In other states, the legislature is currently debating what bucket of funding it will target. At this point, Planned Parenthood has prevailed in just one state, Georgia, as the map below illustrates.

originally posted by: windword
a reply to: Bluntone22

Planned Parenthood wasn't selling "it", they were recouping the expenses involved in storing and exchanging "it". But, this move won't stop the actual selling of fetal body parts and tissues.

You're missing the point of the whole anti-PP argument--it is an organization that receives taxpayer money prior to earning said funds (unlike the most appropriate way, which would be to bill the gov't for services rendered) and provides a few procedures that many of the said taxpayers find abhorrent.

No one is naïve enough to think that this will stop trafficking of fetal tissue, but at least a tax-dollar-funded organization ceased participating in the practice.

Call the charged prices (that were apparently negotiable) recompense for storing and exchanging all that you want, but it doesn't change the fact that it was being sold--it was just being sold "at cost" if that is the case. The semantics that some of you will argue to try and sugar coat the practice to make it appear more benign to those it offends is nothing short of awe-inspiring.

For one, I'm glad that they're stopping selling the organs and will just donate them (although we all know that the cost of "storing and transferring" will be recouped through higher prices or reduced services somewhere), because if some people feel that an abortion is necessary, at least something good should come from it (like stem-cell research). At least then then child wasn't killed in vain.

"" Planned Parenthood stops taking money for fetal tissue donations ""

A perfect way to get people into a comfort zone and make them think the hidden cash will suddenly just disappear.

a reply to: SlapMonkey


I wonder if drug dealers could use the planned parenthood defence?
I didn't sell the drugs your honor, I only charged for delivery and storage fees...

a reply to: SlapMonkey

You're missing the point of the whole anti-PP argument--it is an organization that receives taxpayer money prior to earning said funds (unlike the most appropriate way, which would be to bill the gov't for services rendered) and provides a few procedures that many of the said taxpayers find abhorrent.

Planned Parenthood does bill the government for services rendered, just like any other care provider that accepts Medicare, etc. Again, tax payers don't pay for abortions, see the Hyde Amendment, nor have they paid for fetal tissue storage or transfer.

No one is naïve enough to think that this will stop trafficking of fetal tissue, but at least a tax-dollar-funded organization ceased participating in the practice.

Fetal tissue trafficking is and always has been illegal.
"Trafficking" is a specific crime. The companies, who's ads I posted are NOT trafficking.

Like I said in the OP, funding of the donation, storage and transfer operation of the fetal remains, donated by women who've had their procedures done through Planned Parenthood, will likely continue through grant programs.

Nothing will change except for the kind of paper work that Planned Parenthood will have to deal with.

Another sad day where lies and fake outrage wins another battle, fake it if you cant make it.

Good job to the ones helping push these lies on the rest of us, you know who you are now take a bow.

a reply to: dukeofjive696969

That's how it works in our country. Facts against the narrative you are trying to present? No matter, just bitch and moan for days on end until the other side relents just to shut you up.

Wow I never expected so many people so sad that they have to abide by the law against selling body parts.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: SlapMonkey


I wonder if drug dealers could use the planned parenthood defence?
I didn't sell the drugs your honor, I only charged for delivery and storage fees...

Except nowhere in any law does it say that it's okay to charge for delivery and storage fees of illegal drugs. There IS a provision, however, for receiving reimbursement of costs involved in donation of fetal tissue.

Nice try at being clever though....

This is somehow a victory for PP??

Am I getting that right?

According to some members here PP needed those extra tissue dollars so badly that the organization must now be considering bankruptcy. Unless, of course, PP didn't need the 'reimbursements' from fetal tissue. But that would mean they were after a profit, so it couldn't possibly be true...

a reply to: deadeyedick

Seriously, still playing that game, nobody did anything illegal, but hey if you cry wolf long enough your the proof that people will believe anything there told.

originally posted by: windword
Again, tax payers don't pay for abortions, see the Hyde Amendment, nor have they paid for fetal tissue storage or transfer.

This is an example of the semantics I referenced...they still get the money, they still provide the service, they just shuffle a little money around to appease the Hyde Amendment, but the reality is still that the federal dollars help fund the agency that does the abortion procedures.

It's a cup-and-ball game.

As for the rest of your comment, I agree, to include that I used "trafficking" in the wrong context.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: dukeofjive696969

That's how it works in our country. Facts against the narrative you are trying to present? No matter, just bitch and moan for days on end until the other side relents just to shut you up.

So damn sad and true...from both sides.

Hell, from every degree on the entire circumference of the circle of (modern) life.