Planned Parenthood Did Nothing Wrong

But there is a darker side to the human tissue trade.

By MICHELE GOODWIN
August 05, 2015

Republicans on Capitol Hill, and now GOP presidential candidates like Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, are jumping over each other to defund Planned Parenthood because it transfers fetal tissues to researchers at cost. But if Americans want the benefits of biotechnology—helpful surgeries, cosmetics, vaccines, Alzheimer’s treatment and pharmaceutical drugs—they and their elected representatives need to learn a few basic facts about how these social services and products are derived from human tissue research.

The latest assault on Planned Parenthood comes after graphic video clips were released over the past three weeks purporting to show the non-profit organization nefariously trading fetal body parts for profit. Despite a move by Senate Democrats to block the defunding bill on Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are joining together to try to shut down the government if Planned Parenthood gets federal money. Just yesterday, Jeb Bush railed against “the hard-to-fathom $500 million in federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood—an organization that was callously participating in the unthinkable practice of selling fetal organs.”

Let’s get a few things straight, even before we deal with the absurdity of those propaganda videos. As a researcher focused on the problematic side of human tissue trafficking for nearly twenty years and as a non-compensated board member of a Planned Parenthood affiliate in California, I can say with some degree of certainty that the videos and the national conversation surrounding them are utterly disconnected from America’s demand for products derived from the human body.

(More here.)