Photo by Charlotte Cooper, Flickr, CC
A batch of undercover and highly misleading videos shot by anti-abortion activists seems to have breathed new life into the ongoing Republican war against women in general and Planned Parenthood specifically.
Center for Medical Progress activists posed as employees of a fake company, Biomax Procurement Services, and secretly videotaped their discussions with Planned Parenthood officials about procuring fetal tissue. The heavily edited videos purport to show the agency’s willingness to illegally sell or profit off of fetal tissue.
But the full, unedited videos tell a very different story and indicate that Planned Parenthood representatives stressed repeatedly that offering up fetal tissue for medical research was not a “money-making thing.” Indeed, the nonpartisan Annenberg Public Policy Center’s factcheck.org found that the $30 to $100 per patient fees for tissue procurement, as discussed in the initial video released to the public, were reasonable and wouldn’t create a profit for the organization.
Factcheck.org quoted Sherilyn J. Sawyer, director of Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s biorepository, as saying, “There’s no way there’s a profit at that price.”
The Center for Medical Progress is now under fire for releasing four videos in this vein. A California judge issued a temporary injunction preventing the front group from releasing more videos. StemExpress, a company mentioned in some of the videos that procures tissue for research, sought the injunction, claiming that the secret videos violate California’s anti-wiretapping law. California Attorney General Kamala Harris issued a letter stating that her office would look into allegations that the group violated any additional state laws.
Drop in Public Funding for Contraception
Although the secretly taped videos have been debunked, Republican politicians at all levels often cite them in fresh attacks on Planned Parenthood and reproductive freedom.
GOP presidential wannabe Gov. Scott Walker typically mentions his defunding of Planned Parenthood in his first state budget. Earlier this year, he called for—and recently won—a ban on abortions after 20 weeks with no exemptions for the health of the mother, pregnancies resulting from rape including incest, or the condition of the fetus. No medical organization supported the bill.
In Congress, Republicans are aiming to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding by attaching that condition to a must-pass government spending bill, politico.com reported last week. A vote on a stand-alone defunding bill failed to overcome a Democratic filibuster in the U.S. Senate on Monday, so Republicans are now focusing on including the ban in the larger spending bill. Congress must send a spending bill to President Obama by Sept. 30, otherwise the government will shut down. If this defunding provision is in the spending bill and it gets through the U.S. Senate and to the president’s desk, this could create a standoff between Congress and the president resulting in a shutdown of the government.
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In Wisconsin, Republican legislators are poised to introduce new anti-abortion legislation in the fall session. State Rep. Andre Jacque (R-De Pere) and Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) are circulating a bill that would “ban the sale, transfer and experimentation of aborted fetuses” in the state. While federal law prohibits the sale of fetal tissue across state lines, Jacque in an email to the Shepherd explained that Wisconsin doesn’t have the same restriction.
“The sale of fetal tissue is NOT already outlawed in Wisconsin,” Jacque emailed.
That said, the donation of fetal tissue resulting from an abortion for research purposes is legal with a woman’s consent. The abortion provider can be reimbursed for “reasonable” costs incurred during the donation, such as transporting it to research centers. Donated tissue deriving from an aborted fetus has proved to be critical in research. Factcheck.org noted that such tissue has been used to develop vaccines against measles, rubella and shingles, for example.
Wisconsin does not have a fetal tissue donation program and Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin does not participate in one, according to Nicole Safar, the organization’s policy director. That said, the group is affected by the hype around the Center for Medical Progress video and its political fallout. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is a separate organization and a member of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America as an affiliate.
“We are Planned Parenthood,” Safar told the Shepherd. “Just like affiliates all across this country we work to provide high-quality health care. When our opponents are politically attacking us and lying about other Planned Parenthoods, that does impact us. We do stand together.”
Jacque also seeks to take $3 million in federal funding away from Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin by trying to divert this federal money through the state rather than allowing it to flow directly to Planned Parenthood. He also wants to lower Planned Parenthood’s federal reimbursement rates for prescriptions.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin receives no public dollars for abortions and its federal funding is used for reproductive health issues, including cancer and sexually transmitted infection screenings and contraceptives. Walker took away its state funding in 2011 and the organization has had to shut down five health centers around the state.
A July report from the nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute found that Wisconsin women receiving publicly supported contraceptive services dropped 24% from 2010 to 2013, from 114,280 to 87,120 women. In other words, 27,160 low-income Wisconsin women have lost public-subsidized contraception during the initial years of Walker’s tenure as governor. Elected officials of both parties have long supported taxpayer-funded contraception for low-income Wisconsin women, since it saves the state more money when compared to the costs of supporting a pregnancy. Walker’s stance on contraceptive funding is a huge change in policy.
Despite the attacks, Safar said that Planned Parenthood is still committed to addressing low-income men and women’s health care needs.
“We’re going to continue to provide what no one else will provide,” Safar said.
