Washington Times: Planned Parenthood admits it manipulates rules on fetal organ sales to maximize profit

Planned Parenthood has been claiming innocence in the controversy over the organization’s illegal sales of fetal organs, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But unfortunately for them, Cecile Richards slipped up in an 11-page letter she wrote to Congress. While she meant to further defend Planned Parenthood, she instead made a massive mistake – and the Washington Times has taken her to task for it.

In a letter to Congress intended to defend its practices and attack its hidden-video critics, Planned Parenthood wound up lending credence to accusations that it manipulates rules on selling fetal organs to maximize profit.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, admitted in an 11-page letter Thursday that its affiliates have accepted payments ranging from $45 to $60 “per tissue specimen” from abortions, but said that they were reimbursements to cover costs, which federal law allows.

But she also said that “adjustments that facilitate fetal tissue donations rarely occur at our few clinics that offer women this service,” prompting David Daleiden of the pro-life Center for Medical Progress to declare that she had proved the point of his group’s investigation — that “adjustments occur.”

… “Both of these admissions speak to Planned Parenthood’s financial benefit and profit motive for supplying fetal tissue, and both are the points CMP’s videos have documented and illustrated from the very beginning,” Mr. Daleiden said in a statement.

He disputed Ms. Richards‘ contention that the $45 to $60 per specimen payment was charged only to cover costs, saying that tissue-procurement organizations “handle all dissection, packaging and shipping of fetal organs” while Planned Parenthood spends “10 minutes consenting a patient.”

Richards laid out a desperate defense in her letter to Congress, claiming that the videos are “deceptively edited,” and that Planned Parenthood was cooperating fully with the various investigations into the scandal.

Of course, there is no proof whatsoever that the videos were deceptively edited, an especially laughable argument considering that the full, unedited version of each video has also been released for public viewing. Even Planned Parenthood’s own “experts,” hand-picked by them and paid by Planned Parenthood for their “analysis,” could not find any evidence of audio manipulation.

Moreover, Planned Parenthood has not been cooperating with the numerous investigations into their shady practices, even going so far as barring Dr. Deborah Nucatola from testifying before Congress, and they completely blew off testifying in Texas.

But the most damaging admission so far may be the one that Richards inadvertently let slip in this letter to Congress. She has tried to claim that Planned Parenthood never participates in the illegal sales of fetal organs – until now, when she accidentally admits to just that.

For years, Planned Parenthood has been manipulating women and the taxpayers. And now, as The Washington Times has announced, they’ve been caught red-handed personally admitting to the manipulation of federal law, otherwise known as breaking the law.

Will Planned Parenthood be able to recover from this massive error?