Planned Parenthood to no longer accept payment in fetal tissue programs

NEW YORK — Responding to a furor over undercover videos, Planned Parenthood says it will maintain programs at some of its clinics that make fetal tissue available for research but will no longer accept any sort of payment to cover the costs of those programs.

Anti-abortion activists who recently released a series of covertly filmed videos have contended that Planned Parenthood officials sought profits from their programs providing post-abortion fetal tissue to researchers. Planned Parenthood said the videos were deceptively edited and denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement of costs.

The new policy — forgoing even permissible reimbursement — was outlined in a letter sent Tuesday by Planned Parenthood's president, Cecile Richards, to Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health.

The videos were released, starting in mid-July, by a group of anti-abortion activists calling themselves the Center for Medical Progress. Activists posed as representatives of a biomedical firm and sought to negotiate the purchase of fetal organs from some Planned Parenthood personnel.

David Deleiden, who led the undercover video effort, depicted Planned Parenthood's shift as "an admission of guilt."

Read Wendesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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