Connecting the dots–what we can learn about PPFA and the traffic in baby body parts
As we’ve discussed elsewhere today, the Center for Medical Progress released the third in a series of undercover videos. Only this time, high ranking Planned Parenthood associates are not merely talking about baby lungs and brains and livers and hearts. In the third video we are taken inside a laboratory and shown the remains of an 11.6 week-old unborn baby laid out on a pie plate and being culled for saleable organs and tissues.
Also today the New York Times published a 1,459-word-long story on “fetal tissue” from abortions “for research.”
Not until one gets to the 25th paragraph–1,068 words in–does the reader learn “Fetal tissue sales are not limited to cells in a vial. More than a dozen research papers published since 2012 acknowledge obtaining intact fetal eyes, hearts, livers and kidneys from StemExpress.”
You would think that would merit mentioning in the first two paragraphs. But you would be wrong. Besides the Times might accidentally mention brains and lungs and that makes the transactions even grislier.
Who/what is StemExpress? According to Times’ reporters Denise Grady and Nicholas St. Fleur, StemExpress is a five-year-old business based in Placerville, California that “describes itself as ‘the largest provider of maternal blood and fetal tissue globally.’ It also says it offers ‘special discounts to the academic community.’”
So here are just three quick points, using quotes from the Times story.
#1. “Companies that obtain the tissue from clinics and sell it to laboratories exist in a gray zone, legally. Federal law says they cannot profit from the tissue itself, but the law does not specify how much they can charge for processing and shipping.” We won’t know how much PPFA charges–and for what–until a leading figure, like Dr. Nucatola, gives a briefing to staffers of a congressional committee.
#2. “A StemExpress brochure uncovered by the organization Center for Medical Progress, which was responsible for the leaked videos, contains an endorsement from a chapter of Planned Parenthood. It quotes Dr. Dorothy Furgerson of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte saying: ‘Our partnership with StemExpress is beneficial in a number of ways.’ It goes on to describe contributions to ‘lifesaving research,’ and its confidence that patients’ anonymity is secure.”
It’s not as simple as that, as we’ve discussed multiple times. In addition, the Times reporters do not talk about the heavy-duty selling points that PPFA affiliates use in trying to persuade women to “donate” their baby’s “tissue”: finding a possible cure of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. This is 90% hypothetical and 10% exaggeration. And
#3. Cate Dyer is the founder of StemExpress. Grady and St. Fleur write, “StemExpress uses procurement technicians to obtain fetal tissue. ‘We’re collecting biohazardous waste, discarded waste,’ Ms. Dyer said. ‘They go to a hospital or to a facility that does terminations and collect tissues from those waste products.’” What can you add to that dehumanizing description?
We are told by CMP that there are more videos to come. As they are made public, we will, of course, write about what they tell us.
wyandotcountyrightolife 