Brownback calls for investigation of Planned Parenthood facilities in Kansas

Gov. Sam Brownback has called for an investigation into whether any Kansas facilities have sold tissue from aborted fetuses.

The action came after anti-abortion activists on Tuesday released a second undercover video depicting conversations with Planned Parenthood employees. The videos have raised questions about whether the national organization has sold fetal tissue for profit.

Planned Parenthood has said the videos were heavily edited and falsely portray its participation in tissue donation programs.

Brownback called selling tissue from fetuses inhumane and asked the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to investigate whether any facilities in Kansas did so.

“Kansas remains committed to a culture that respects the dignity of life at all stages. Recent videos show Planned Parenthood employees treating the unborn as commodities as they discuss the sale of tissue and organs. This does not reflect the culture of life most Kansans want,” he said in a statement.

Laura McQuade, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said her organization has already made clear that its Kansas facilities don’t have a tissue collection program.

She said Planned Parenthood would cooperate with the investigation, but added that calls for investigations were “a political move on the part of those who would block people from receiving services from Planned Parenthood with their ultimate goal of banning abortion across the United States.”

The video released Tuesday by the Center for Medical Progress shows physician Mary Gatter, a Planned Parenthood medical director in Southern California, meeting with people posing as potential buyers of intact fetal specimens. Much of the conversation deals with how much money the buyers should pay.

Federal law prohibits the commercial sale of fetal tissue, but allows not-for-profit donation of tissue if the women who underwent abortions give their consent. Planned Parenthood contends that the payments discussed in the new video, and a similar one released last week, pertain to reimbursement for the costs of procuring the tissue – which is legal.

Gatter says in the video, “We’re not in it for the money,” while discussing whether a payment of $100 per specimen would be adequate.

In another portion of the video, she appears to suggest that abortion procedures could be modified in some cases to get more intact fetuses. Under federal law, there should be no alteration in the timing or method of an abortion done solely for the purpose of obtaining fetal tissue.

Eric Ferrero, Planned Parenthood’s vice president of communications, said the video falsely portrays the organization’s participation in tissue donation programs.

“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,” Ferrero said in a statement posted on the organization’s website. “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.”

Following release of the first video on July 14, three congressional committees and top officials in several states said they would launch investigations of Planned Parenthood’s handling of fetal tissue. Anti-abortion groups have expressed hope that Congress might cut off federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood for family planning and other non-abortion services

Planned Parenthood, in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, depicted the videos as “a campaign of corporate espionage” being orchestrated by anti-abortion activist David Daleiden of the previously little-known Center for Medical Progress. The letter said Daleiden was involved in secretly recording Planned Parenthood staff and patients at least 65 times over the last eight years, potentially yielding thousands of hours of recordings.

Daleiden, in a statement Tuesday, said Planned Parenthood’s denial of engaging in the sale of fetal parts is “a desperate lie.”

Planned Parenthood has staunchly defended its role in procuring fetal tissue for researchers, saying it is important work that could help develop treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Asked about the latest video, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters that “human fetal tissue research has been very important.”

“I see no indication that Planned Parenthood has violated federal law,” Reid said.

Anti-abortion leaders, however, have questioned the very nature of the fetal-tissue research.

“Planned Parenthood’s selling of the broken bodies of unborn children is inhumane and troubling no matter how any investigation concludes,” said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life. “And if Planned Parenthood’s conduct does not violate the federal law prohibiting the sale of fetal tissue and organs, then the law must be changed.”　

Contributing: Bryan Lowry of The Eagle; Associated Press

This story was originally published July 21, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Brownback calls for investigation of Planned Parenthood facilities in Kansas."