In the wake of repeated attacks by antiabortion activists, Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday that it would stop taking reimbursements for fetal tissue donations to medical research. Sandhya Somashekhar
reports:
In a letter to the director of the National Institutes of Health, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said the payments had become fodder for antiabortion activists. While the organization will continue to donate the tissue, its affiliates will no longer be permitted to recoup any costs from providing those donations, she said.
“Our decision is first and foremost about preserving the ability of our patients to donate tissue, and to expose our opponents’ false charges about this limited but important work,” Richards wrote.
Only one Planned Parenthood affiliate accepts reimbursements, it's in California and it takes $60 per donation. The only other affiliate with a tissue donation program is in Washington state, but it does not take reimbursements. That made the decision "relatively easy," said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of PP.
Still, don't expect the GOP harassment of Planned Parenthood to end.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight committee, said in a statement that the announcement was “a good, tangible result of the collective efforts of the House in investigating Planned Parenthood. It is helpful in taking away some questions surrounding their transactions involving fetal tissue.”
Still, he said, “Significant questions still remain about Planned Parenthood’s finances.”
Don't the Republicans have a few other things to worry about right now—like their
complete and utter inability to piece together a semblance of governance? Or is continuing to prosecute their war on women's health care really of paramount importance to that?