Seeking to quell public uproar over its abortion practices and to soothe "an anti-abortion political agenda," Planned Parenthood has decided not to accept any more money from research institutions in exchange for tissues from aborted foetuses from now on.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards announced the policy shift on Tuesday in a letter to Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, according to Fox News.
"In order to completely debunk the disingenuous argument that our opponents have been using – and to reveal the true political purpose of these attacks – our Federation has decided, going forward, that any Planned Parenthood health centre that is involved in donating tissue after an abortion for medical research will...accept no reimbursement for its reasonable expenses," Richards wrote.
"Going forward, all of our health centres will follow the same policy, even if it means they will not recover reimbursements permitted by the 1993 law," she further wrote.
The procedural modification will only affect one Planned Parenthood clinic, since Richards explained that there are "two affiliates currently facilitating donations for foetal tissue research," and one of them already doesn't accept reimbursement.
It is legal for clinics to be reimbursed for any expenses incurred during the donation process of foetal tissues. However, in their sting videos, the Centre for Medical Progress (CMP) suggested that the abortion service provider might have benefited from the sale, and that makes it illegal.
Reacting to the Planned Parenthood policy shift, the CMP said Richards' letter is "an admission of guilt," which only goes to show that they have been doing something illegal all along when it comes to organ harvesting.
"This proves what CMP has been saying all along—Planned Parenthood incurs no actual costs, and the payments for harvested foetal parts have always been an extra profit margin," CMP's David Daleiden said in a statement.
