Planned Parenthood has been on thin ice for some time now. Lately, pro-lifers across numerous platforms have been smelling blood in the water and claiming that the decline of the “controversial” organization is imminent. An undercover video released on July 14 by anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress has many contending that Planned Parenthood is “profiting” off the sale of fetal body parts. The video allegedly shows Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the Senior Director of Medical Services at Planned Parenthood, openly discussing the illegal trade of fetal tissue from abortions. It certainly appears damning at first look, or is at least presented as such. What the Center for Medical Progress fails to acknowledge, however, is that the video cited as evidence against Planned Parenthood is in fact a misleading, edited portrayal of Dr. Nucatola describing the reimbursement cost of consensual, and indeed legal, tissue donations. Shall we delve deeper?
Deciphering the Video
As Dr. Deborah Nucatola sits spearing her salad and sipping a glass of red wine, it appears as if the Planned Parenthood official is callously discussing the organization’s affiliates’ illegal dealings. “I’d say a lot of people want liver,” Nucatola says, before describing the practice of providers conducting abortions in order to procure fetal tissue for transportation. Nucatola also mentions that the cost for fetal tissue specimen ranges from $30 to $100 “depending on the facility and what’s involved.” These are merely samples of comments deceptively strung together out of context, insidiously designed to go viral on social media platforms. Seeking approval from their supporters, several notable conservatives promptly sounded off on the video. Rand Paul released a statement claiming that there is “… a video showing [Planned Parenthood]’s top doctor describing how she performs late-term abortions to sell body parts for profit!” Carly Fiorina also jumped in, responding, “This latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn’t about ‘choice.’ It’s about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it’s about empowerment.” What may, or may not, come as a shock to some is that comments made by Nucatola are in no way evidence backing these claims. The full, unedited video makes it more than clear that in mentioning $30 to $100, Nucatola is in fact discussing the amount in respects to the costs of handling and transporting the fetal tissues to research centers. Various experts in the use of fetal tissue for research have made statements with regard to the potential for profit. Sherilyn J. Sawyer, the director of Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s “biorepository,” stated that “In reality, $30-100 probably constitutes a loss for [Planned Parenthood]. The costs associated with collection, processing, storage, and inventory and records management for specimens are very high. Most hospitals will provide tissue blocks from surgical procedures (ones no longer needed for clinical purposes, and without identity) for research, and cost recover for their time and effort in the range of $100-500 per case/block. In the realm of tissues for research $30-100 is a completely reasonable and normal fee.”
In response to the unedited video, however, various critics have found themselves stuck on one particular statement Nucatola makes, which they see as having possibly suggested that some clinics would be comfortable with a payment that covers more than just the expenses for transporting tissue. “I think for affiliates, at the end of the day, they’re a nonprofit, they just don’t want to — they want to break even. And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that,” Nucatola says. Yet what clarifies, and even negates, this allegation is what Nucatola goes on to say. “Really their bottom line is, they want to break even. Every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient. To provide a service the patient wouldn’t get.” Throughout footage comprising the raw video, Nucatola often portrays affiliates as simply wanting to provide a service to patients willing to donate tissue for medical research, while contemporaneously seeing that this does not impact the affiliates’ bottom lines. As she elaborates upon this matter, Nucatola mentions that it is “not a new revenue stream the affiliates are looking at,” also stating that “nobody should be ‘selling’ tissue. That’s just not the goal here.”
At one point in the video, Nucatola goes on to tell the “buyers,” or at least the actors purporting to represent buyers from a fetal tissue procurement company, that the decisions made by affiliates regarding work with a tissue research organization would in no way be based on money. “You could call them up and say, ‘I’ll pay you double the money,’ and they’re almost more inclined to say no, because it’s going to look bad…To them, this is not a service they should be making money from, it’s something they should be able to offer this to their patients, in a way that doesn’t impact them,” Nucatola explicitly states.
Planned Parenthood also went on to defend its affiliates’ practice of fetal tissue donation as a practice which is “standard across the medical field,” in a statement displayed on its website, saying, “At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood. In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.”
The Practice of Fetal Tissue Procurement
As if crafty video editing wasn’t successful enough in creating a false persona for Planned Parenthood, the deceptive footage would undoubtedly have not been complete without the captions summarizing U.S. legislation surrounding human fetal tissue. Following the release of the video, various right-wing outlets were quick to suggest that Planned Parenthood is seemingly in violation of federal law. A great factor in this controversy can be attributed to a lack of widespread public knowledge regarding who buys and sells fetal tissue, how it’s utilized, and the legality behind its purchase and sale. Though such material has been used in medical research for decades now in order to study (and potentially develop cures for) a number of medical ailments and diseases, the commercial transaction of fetal tissue is extant within somewhat of a legal gray zone. While organizations have the ability to sell fetal tissue procured and donated through abortions, the exception is that they may not profit off of it. According to federal law, they may only charge for the amount associated with processing and shipping costs involved in transferring the material from donor to purchaser, however the law doesn’t specify on how much they may charge.
It has always stood that fetal tissue may only be used or sold subsequent to an abortion with the consent of the woman. Many researchers have to purchase this fetal tissue from middlemen who pay fees for the specimens from providers such as Planned Parenthood and then resell them to those researchers. It’s maintained by Planned Parenthood that they charge only what the law allows, while the middlemen many a time charge an inevitable markup, of which covers any processing costs.
The New York Times has extensively covered StemExpress, a middleman in association with Planned Parenthood. Founder Cate Dyer stated, “These cells are hard to isolate. These are hard processes, expensive processes that take millions of dollars of equipment. Just to attempt to do some of these isolations can cost us thousands of dollars, and it may not even work.”
This effort is reflected in the pricing: a vial containing five million frozen fetal liver CD133+ stem cells can cost more than $24,000. The final products are shipped fresh or frozen. Shipping fees are separate from specimen costs, and an overnight shipment to Germany, for example, can cost thousands of dollars, according to Ms. Dyer.
While the ultimate aim of medical researchers is to be able to replace fetal stem cells with those derived from adult tissue, the technology required to do so has yet to be developed. Differentiation in development between humans and other species leaves animal tissue limited in usefulness as well.
Why it matters to know the truth behind the videos
No matter how you identify, whether pro-life or pro-choice, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, it’s imperative to note the obscurity behind the video that has garnered oh so much attention. To cite a video as played up, and as unsubstantiated as it was, is to essentially make claims out of ignorance. It’s one thing to base allegations on legitimately documented footage, but as soon as commentary is taken out of context, a line is crossed. So regardless of your stance on the defunding of Planned Parenthood, or Planned Parenthood in general, look deeper, question things more, and don’t be too quick to believe everything you see.