Gov. Brownback continues to take aim at Planned Parenthood (+ video)

Gov. Sam Brownback repeatedly criticized Planned Parenthood during a news conference Friday after calling for the Board of Healing Arts to investigate abortion facilities earlier this week.

The governor’s action comes in response to a series of hidden-camera videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group, that appear to show officials from Planned Parenthood discussing the sale of tissue from aborted fetuses.

“I don’t think they ought to be selling human hearts. I see that as wrong. I think most Kansans see selling human organs as wrong,” Brownback said. “We’re talking about humans here. Not just pieces of tissue.”

He would not say whether he thought Planned Parenthood was engaging in such practices in Kansas. He said that an investigation would determine that.

Planned Parenthood has said the videos were heavily edited. And abortion supporters in Kansas have accused Brownback of using the videos to push for further restrictions on abortion.

Laura McQuade, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said in an e-mail that the organization “refuses to be treated as Governor Brownback’s political punching bag.”

McQuade said Planned Parenthood’s Kansas facilities do not participate in fetal tissue donation programs and noted that the group already undergoes regular state inspections. She called the governor’s investigation a “money-wasting, politically motivated witch hunt.”

Rep. Melissa Rooker, R-Fairway, a Republican who supports abortion rights, said the investigation is a waste of state resources.

“We’ve got all kinds of problems that need investigating. This is not on that list,” she said.

The anti-abortion group Kansans For Life, which played an important role in organizating grassroots support for Brownback’s re-election, has noted that Planned Parenthood previously had a tissue donation program in Kansas and that controversy surrounding that program led to a 2000 law outlawing the “harvesting” of fetuses.

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 8:26 PM with the headline "Gov. Brownback continues to take aim at Planned Parenthood (+ video)."