On the Planned Parenthood Video

[Content Note: War on agency.]

As you may have heard, yesterday, an anti-choice group released an undercover video of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing "how to abort a fetus to preserve its organs for medical research—as well as the costs associated with sharing that tissue with scientists."

Naturally, this is supposed to be THE BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER, but nothing on that video is illegal, nor is what's being discussed outside normal medical practices:

In a statement to The Daily Beast, Eric Ferrero, Vice President of Communications for PPFA, maintained that Planned Parenthood's practices surrounding human fetal tissue are legal:

"In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, such as treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different. 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. 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."

...The donation of aborted human fetal tissue may come as a shock to a public unfamiliar with the practice but it is, in fact, a longstanding one. According to the American Society for Cell Biology, scientists have been researching human fetal tissue since the 1930s, with aborted tissue playing a part in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's development of the rubella and varicella vaccines in the 1960s (PDF). Ronald Reagan put a hold on using fetal tissue for transplants in 1988 while other forms of fetal tissue research continued and Bill Clinton subsequently lifted Reagan's moratorium in 1993.

There is no scandal. There is just the usual hyperbolic and hateful outrage-generation by anti-choicers who prey on ignorance, operating within a culture of Christian Supremacy and increasing contempt for science.

See also: Robin Marty.