[Vision2020] Planned Parenthood has broken no laws

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Opinion section of today's (August 6, 2015) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with special thanks to Nick Gier for acknowledging and expressing the urgent necessity for fetal tissue medical research being emphasized by Planned Parenthood.

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His View: Planned Parenthood has broken no laws
By Nick Gier
Millions of Americans have donated their organs for transplantation; or, alternatively, they have offered their entire bodies for medical research. For the latter, many universities and private companies contract to pay for funeral expenses, and hospitals generally charge $100 to $500 to prepare surgical tissue for medical research. The $30 to $100 Planned Parenthood bills to process fetal tissue, released only with permission of the woman involved, is modest in comparison.
Critics would argue that the fetus is a separate person and therefore must somehow give consent. Our moral, religious and legal traditions, however, have not recognized the fetus as a person until late in pregnancy. (See my article at www.webpages.uidaho.edu/ngier/abortion.htm.) In 1973, the Supreme Court followed these precedents by ruling that the fetus is not a viable, independent being until end of the second trimester.
In 1993, Congress lifted the ban, put in place by the Reagan administration, on using fetal tissue from abortions for medical research. The legislation allows "reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, or storage of human fetal tissue."
In the uncut video taken by anti-abortion activists, Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood insists we "are not looking to make money by doing this" and she turned down offers of $1,600 by fraudulent buyers for two fetal organs.
Planned Parenthood has apologized for Nucatola's callous tone in discussing fetal organs. When Planned Parenthood's Dr. Mary Gatter said she was going to buy a Lamborghini with the small processing fees, some people somehow do not get the obvious irony in this ludicrous comment.
Those who actually do fetal tissue research are much more sensitive. Microbiologist Nathalia Holt, who used to work in a lab at the University of Southern California, confesses that the mood was always somber when the white boxes arrived every morning.
Holt writes: "Every time I worked with a fetal liver, I imagined that somewhere in California a woman had made the agonizing, heartbreaking decision to end her pregnancy. Yet she had also donated her aborted fetus to medical research. A promise had been made; these cells were not simply trash."
Fetal tissue has been essential in investigating the causes and cures of diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and cystic fibrosis. It has been particularly valuable in producing vaccines against hepatitis A, measles, rubella, chicken pox and shingles. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center in Philadelphia, declares that "cells from one fetus have no doubt saved the lives of millions of people."
The anti-abortion activists introduced themselves to Nucatola and Gatter as representatives of the Center for Medical Progress, which has direct connections to the militant anti-choice group Action Live. Kamala Harris, California's attorney general, has launched an investigation into "allegations about individuals impersonating corporate officials from a fake biologics company." She wants to know if any state laws have been violated.
Live Action is associated with Operation Rescue, which has held protests at abortion clinics all over the nation. Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue's senior adviser, served a two-year prison term for attempting to bomb a clinic in 1987.
Operation Rescue led a multi-year campaign against abortion doctor George Tiller, who was assassinated by Scott Roeder at church in 2009. Roeder was active in Operation Rescue, and he claims that Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue and secretary for the so-called Center for Medical Progress, encouraged him to use violence to protect the lives of the unborn.
Earlier this week Senate Republicans attempted to rush through legislation defunding Planned Parenthood. Fortunately, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got only 53 of the 60 votes he needed to bring the bill to a vote. Sadly, this will not stop anti-abortionists from harassing America's most effective family planning organization. Ninety-seven percent of those funds go to cancer screening, contraception and prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases.
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Thanks, Nick . . . for giving a damn.

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" 
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
  
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