13, September 2015 Planned Parenthood
The bogus attacks on Planned Parenthood
based on heavily edited, highly deceptive videos falsely claimed it illegally
sold fetal tissue for profit. This fabrication has reverberated in Congress who
have threatened to not only defund Planned Parenthood but also fetal tissue
research. Concerns for the safety of their staff have prompted several Planned
Parenthood centers to suspend their fetal tissue donation program. Largely
unreported is the simple fact that they
only accepted small fees to cover storage and transportation costs. Elective abortions are only offered at two
centers providing women fewer choices to terminate unwanted pregnancies.
Bereft of more important issues, the cast of GOP hopefuls
are already competing with each other with promises of how they will defund and
otherwise attack Planned Parenthood. Fetal tissue research has a long history
dating back to the 1930s which has contributed enormously to major advances in
medicine. It was the patron saint of Republican orthodoxy, Ronald Reagan, who
halted important scientific research and turned it into a hot political issue,
masquerading as a moral crusade. In his second term Reagan imposed a moratorium on federal funding for fetal tissue research. He made the preposterous assertion that many pregnant women were seeking abortions and selling the fetal tissues as a money making scheme. Unless efforts are made to save Planned Parenthood, women’s choices will be severely curtailed and critical fetal tissue research will be left to our competitors, to the detriment of American medical research. This would be a travesty.
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