Five states have now concluded investigations into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), and every single investigation has concluded no wrongdoing. These investigations were stimulated by highly doctored and deceptive videos falsely claiming PPFA has been selling fetal tissue.
State agency representatives from Georgia, South Dakota, Florida, Indiana, and Massachusetts have independently confirmed that all five states have not violated any laws.
“It’s alarming that based on bogus videos, four states- Arizona, Utah, Alabama, and Louisiana- have rushed to defunded Planned Parenthood clinics, injuring women, especially low-income women, by denying them access to vitally-needed women’s healthcare,” said Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority Foundation.
Investigations of Planned Parenthood follow the released heavily-edited, misleading videos falsely suggesting that PPFA profits from fetal tissue donation by an anti-reproductive rights group calling itself the Center for Medical Progress. Experts, including Glenn Simpson- an investigative reporter for the FBI- have now discredited the videos in a formal report to Congress. Simpson calls the videos:
“Sloppy at best- frequently inaccurate or erroneous. And in places, it appears as if they commit what I would call wishful thinking about what was being said.”
Fetal tissue research, an important area of work that has led to medical advancements such as the development of the polio vaccine, is a tiny portion of what PPFA does. At only 1 percent of Planned Parenthood health centers in the country is fetal tissue donation an option for patients, and in only two states: Washington and California.
Many feel that these attacks on Planned Parenthood are actually about pushing for an anti-abortion extremist agenda to limit access to abortion nationwide. PPFA Vice President Dawn Laguens told NPR:
“It is completely about their agenda to take away safe, legal abortion in this country, to destroy reproductive health care for women in this country and to destroy Planned Parenthood, that stands up and fights for those things.”
Already some Republicans, including Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), are threatening a government shutdown if Planned Parenthood is not defunded. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he was “absolutely confident that if Republicans try to defund Planned Parenthood in a government spending bill at the end of September, Democrats will unite against it.” White House press secretary Josh Earnest has confirmed that President Obama would veto any bill to defund Planned Parenthood.
Media Resources: Feminist Newswire 8/17/15; 8/17/15; Planned Parenthood Infographic; RH Reality Check 8/13/15; 7/17/15; 7/31/15; NPR 8/27/15; CNN 7/17/15; 8/4/15; 8/3/15;
