Policy Change Will Reveal GOP Smokescreen To Kill Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, said in a letter Tuesday, Oct. 13, that Planned Parenthood would no longer accept fetal tissue donation program reimbursements, even though a 1993 federal law allows them. The massive change comes after a slew of allegations that Planned Parenthood sells baby parts for profit.”

According to CNN, Planned Parenthood states its policy change proves that it has no interest in profiting from tissue donations, contrary to what the right wing believes.

Republicans helped legalize fetal tissue expenses in 1993

Richards maintains that the only money received is for legally allowed expenses – not to earn a profit, and those are “reasonable expenses,” which are legal under a 1993 federal law, according to FactCheck.org.

Planned Parenthood operates fetal tissue donation centers in two states, but only one receives reimbursements, according to Politico. Yet Congressional Republicans took drastic steps to defund the organization entirely – including a government shutdown threat that ultimately cost Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) his job.

Witch hunt continues despite policy change

According to Richards’ letter,

“Planned Parenthood’s policies on fetal tissue donation already exceed the legal requirements … Now we’re going even further in order to take away any basis for attacking Planned Parenthood to advance an anti-abortion political agenda.”

David Daleiden, founder of Center for Medical Progress, has a different view. In a response letter, he writes that the:

“’policy’ change is an admission of guilt … a PR stunt … Planned Parenthood incurs no actual costs and the payments for harvested fetal parts have always been an extra profit margin.”

The videos that started the attack on Planned Parenthood come from Daleiden’s “Human Capital” scheme, and he used lying, stealing, and identity-thieving to fake his way into Planned Parenthood, according to Daleiden during various interviews and the CMP website. The CMP videos are heavily edited, and the transcript quite likely fabricated in places, according to Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, via the Huffington Post, who added that three independent groups went over the tapes.

Daleiden likely violated a number of other state, federal, and local laws, and the constitutional rights of the persons on the tapes, say Congressional Democrats, who opened their own investigation into the issue.

According to Politico, Dawn Laguens said that that the false charges are a smokescreen, and that removing the sole issue that spurred the attacks would eventually prove the political and partisan nature of the Republicans’ investigations.

Delusional actions will result in real consequences

What’s totally laughable about the whole “selling baby parts/defund Planned Parenthood” mess is that the Hyde Amendment prevents federal funds from paying for abortions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood would only cut off Medicaid reimbursements and grants, while abortions would continue unabated.

In fact, the only abortions that would stop if the Congressional Republicans’ goal is realized are those covered by Medicaid because of the “rape, incest or health of the mother” exception, per the Hyde Amendment. Several states tried and failed to cut Medicaid funding, according to CBS. Federal rules are stricter, making it less possible to cut off Medicaid funding.

Increased expenditures via CBO
Table of Expenditures via report from CBO.gov

Furthermore, defunding Planned Parenthood (PDF) would increase government expenditures by $130 million over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In other words, according to Laguens, the sustained attacks on Planned Parenthood are simply a way for Congressional Republicans to make an end-run around the constitutionally protected right of a woman to choose to have an abortion.

The takeaway? “Right to lifers” and Congressional Republicans only want to hurt rape and incest survivors, potentially kill pregnant women who need abortions to stay alive, and allow poor women to go without healthcare.

View the full 1993 bill’s text allowing fetal tissue donation reimbursements here, the Hyde Amendment here, and an independent analysis of the videos here.