Fetal Trafficking Under Oath - Planned Parenthood's Admissions About Fetal Tissue Research Programs

UNSEALED SWORN TESTIMONY SHOWS PLANNED PARENTHOOD LIED TO CONGRESS ABOUT FETAL TISSUE SALES
VP of Research Testifies that Houston Branch Sold the Entire Fetus to Local University, Not “Only” the Placenta as PPFA Claimed

IRVINE, Oct. 29--The Center for Medical Progress released a fourth video today featuring unsealed video clips from Planned Parenthood leaders’ sworn deposition testimony about the abortion provider’s fetal tissue research programs--including details about the programs that directly contradict what Planned Parenthood told multiple Congressional investigations in 2015 and 2016.

While under investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Select Investigative Panel, Planned Parenthood told Congress that its Houston, TX affiliate, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, never had a “fetal” tissue research program--only a “placental” tissue program--with researchers at University of Texas Medical Branch. Based on this representation, Planned Parenthood produced less documentation of PPGC’s practices than other regional offices in California.

But when questioned under oath about the transactions with UTMB, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s Vice President for Research, Melissa Farrell, testifies that her Planned Parenthood office in fact transferred the entire aborted fetus to UTMB, not just the placenta. Farrell testifies that in previous fetal tissue transactions, PPGC transferred the “products of conception” from the abortion--the fetus, placenta, and everything removed in the abortion--“in its entirety.” When asked, “What specimens are then conveyed to UTMB under the contract?” Farrell replies, “Products of conception,” and when asked, “Was it the entire products of conception from the abortion procedure?” she answers, “That is my understanding, yes.”

Contracts between PPGC and UTMB show the abortion provider charging $150 per successful fetal tissue specimen transfer to the university. The State of Texas disqualified the Planned Parenthood network from the state Medicaid program based on CMP’s undercover footage, and the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the termination, finding that CMP’s undercover footage is authentic and accurate evidence that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast committed partial-birth abortions to sell fetal tissue.

The video also includes testimony from Dr. Katharine Sheehan, the longtime Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest in San Diego and Riverside in southern California. Dr. Sheehan testifies that PPPSW has an ongoing relationship to provide fetal organs and tissues to middleman wholesaler Advanced Bioscience Resources, but she also reveals that PPPSW simultaneously has direct fetal tissue supply relationships with a local research institution and the researchers working there. Published experimental studies from UC San Diego thank Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest for providing aborted fetal tissue. In 2018, the Health and Human Services Department terminated an FDA contract with ABR for fetal tissue because it was “not sufficiently assured” that ABR complied with the federal law against selling fetal tissue (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).

The video also shows further testimony from Dr. Mary Gatter, for many years the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles responsible for the fetal tissue program with the wholesaler business Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, which closed down during the scrutiny of the Congressional investigations. When Dr. Gatter is asked a similar question as Dr. Sheehan as to whether PPLA also had researchers other than the Novogenix company come “to collect” fetal specimens, Dr. Gatter at first testifies, “Not as far I am aware.” Then, Dr. Gatter testifies, “Can I just--let me, I’d like to amend that, to say, there is a difference between tissue collection for a big organization, that they collect the tissue--a tissue procurement organization--and a specific research project. Now, we may in fact have been involved in specific research projects, but that’s a whole different category from fetal tissue donation.” Dr. Gatter testifies that she was responsible for “research projects” at PPLA and securing approval from the national Planned Parenthood Federation of America Research Department for these studies. But when asked to clarify, “Those research projects may have included projects that involved fetal tissue?” Dr. Gatter testifies, “I cannot remember.”

CMP founder and project lead David Daleiden notes, “When the undercover videos were first released, Planned Parenthood delivered a carefully-constructed script to the public and to the press minimizing their involvement in fetal experimentation--but under oath, their story changes. Now we know that Planned Parenthood flagrantly lied to the United States Congress about the extent of its abortion clinics’ criminal trafficking in fetal body parts for experimentation. How long will public officials continue to allow them to get away with it?”