Abortion service provider Planned Parenthood profited from selling parts of aborted babies, according to a pro-life organisation, which released documents to support the Texas investigation that may prompt the creation of a new grand jury.
Operation Rescue lawyer Briscoe Cain held a press conference in front of the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast (PPGC) in Houston, Texas.
Planned Parenthood was not charged by a grand jury relating to an investigation of the abortion service provider. Instead, the jury indicted the complainant, David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and Sandra Merritt.
New invoices showed that PPGC partnered with the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston to provide aborted babies' tissue for medical research and experimentation, according to LifeSite News.
A Sept. 7, 2011 email purportedly shows a UTMB official telling Melissa Farrell of PPGC that, "We are needing to collect tissues as soon as possible."
Farrell sent UTMB two invoices: one for $5,750 covering February-August 2010, and another for $2,374.98 for January-June 2011. The invoices carried charges as "reimbursement for study supplies" or "annual admin fee."
Each has a line charging $150 for each "consent" obtained, which lawyers said proves that PPGC charged a fee per specimen.
This is how Farrell got to hide its profit in "line items" as she told CMP on video, the report said.
"Farrell admitted on camera to undercover investigators that PPGC 'worded' the per-specimen charges for foetal specimens as 'per consent' in order to 'frame' the project budget in a way that will look legal 'on paper,'" David Daleiden said. "Whether the 'consent fee' for foetal tissue is $25"—the amount Farrell mentioned on film—"or $150, it is completely outside the letter and spirit of Texas Penal Code 48.02."
There's also the question of public funding for Planned Parenthood.
"Because Planned Parenthood was selling to publicly funded universities, this means that our tax dollars went to buy aborted baby remains and ended up in the pockets of Planned Parenthood executives," said Operation Rescue Senior Vice President Cheryl Sullenger.
Sullenger has renewed call for a new grand jury to investigate Planned Parenthood that will be directed by an independent prosecutor not related to Devon Anderson or anyone in the Harris County District Attorney's office.
The documents are also aimed at supporting the Texas investigation into PPGC, which paid $4.3 million in 2013 to settle allegation of Medicaid fraud.
