US abortion group Planned Parenthood has said it will stop taking money for body parts from aborted babies in what is being called a “stunt” and an “admission of guilt” by the pro-life group which exposed its practices.
Plannned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, announced the change in policy in a letter to the National Institutes of Health.
The move was met with skepticism by pro-life groups, who said that it does nothing to address the organisation’s “barbaric practice” of dismembering and harvesting the body parts of unborn children.
Evidence
Planned Parenthood has been the focus of a long-term investigation by The Center for Medical Progress (CMP), which has released a series of undercover videos appearing to show Planned Parenthood executives engaged in unethical behaviour.
In one of the videos, a doctor is shown discussing the price of babies’ vital organs over lunch.
Another video shows graphic footage of a baby whose heart was still beating being dismembered outside the womb. The videos are also reported to hold evidence of the abortion procedure being manipulated to provide more suitable organs.
Barbaric
Reacting to the move, David Daleiden, lead investigator for CMP, said: “Today, Planned Parenthood’s latest PR stunt of so-called ‘policy’ change is an admission of guilt.”
Eric Scheidler, Executive Director of Pro-Life Action League, also criticised Richards saying she “just doesn’t get it”.
What has horrified people – and prompted nationwide protests – isn’t that Planned Parenthood might profit from the sale of fetal tissue, but that they are harvesting body parts from human beings they’ve killed
Eric Scheidler
He said: “What has horrified people – and prompted nationwide protests – isn’t that Planned Parenthood might profit from the sale of fetal tissue, but that they are harvesting body parts from human beings they’ve killed”.
The US Congress has begun an investigation into Planned Parenthood and several states have already voted to defund the organisation.
Investigation
Republican politician Bob Goodlatte, who is part of the committee investigating Planned Parenthood, said that the investigation will continue.
He said: “This announcement by Planned Parenthood does not change the focus of the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Planned Parenthood’s practice of procuring fetal tissue”.
“Furthermore, Planned Parenthood’s recent announcement certainly does not excuse the horrific practices brought to light in the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress.”
Congresswoman Diane Black, who has been an outspoken critic of the group, said the development does not change her conviction that Planned Parenthood should not be subsidised by American taxpayers.