The Daily Caller has the details about today’s breaking news story: newly unsealed discovery documents show how California Planned Parenthood clinics sold the body parts of unborn children to Stem Express, a middle-man company that would sell fetal tissue procured from abortion clinics to researchers. Planned Parenthood’s Fresno clinic was actively involved in this scheme.
The records give a clinic-by-clinic breakdown of fetal tissue sales from clinics within Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Planned Parenthood’s regional affiliate for Northern California, Central California, and Nevada, from August to September of 2012. In that quarter, Stem-Express gave Planned Parenthood almost $25,000 for organs from aborted children (“Products of Conception” or “POC”) and maternal blood samples.
California and federal law ban the sale of aborted children’s bodies for profit. Such transactions are only legal if the money simply offsets the costs of procurement, shipping, storage and other associated expenses.
Noteworthy for our supporters is what the documents tell us about the Planned Parenthood clinic in Fresno. From July to September 2012, Planned Parenthood’s Fresno clinic sold 92 “POC” samples for $4420. They also sold 114 maternal blood samples for $1140. The three invoices can be seen below, with the charges for the Fresno clinic listed first, at the top left of each invoice:
The contractual agreement between Planned Parenthood and Stem-Express set the price point for fetal tissue at $55 per POC, but only for those “determined in the clinic to be usable,” according to paragraph 5 of the contract. Thus, the charges did not seem to relate purely to procurement costs, but to the usefulness of the samples. If the charges are not related strictly to costs incurred, but to the value of the specimen, then this is evidence that the exchange was for profit, and therefore illegal. Planned Parenthood also received different amounts for different “products of conception”: some were $55 and some were $35. Here is the first page of the contract:
We believe this new evidence merits renewed scrutiny of the legality of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s actions, at the federal, state, and county levels. We are grateful that this evidence has come forward, showing the grave immorality, and possible illegality, of Planned Parenthood’s conduct. This evil was happening in our own backyard, and it must come to an end.