For the past two months there has been an increasing controversy in the United States concerning the dealings by the American branch of the International Federation of Planned Parenthood, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, after the release of online videos that show that this association delivers aborted fetal body parts to clinics for medical research in exchange for financial compensation.
Individuals from the Center for Medical Progress who purport to be, on their internet site, journalists working on medical ethics, posed as buyers for aborted fetal body parts. By hidden camera, they filmed in 2014 American directors of Planned Parenthood explaining the exchange of aborted fetal body parts for money. Although the practice is authorized in the United States under certain conditions, its marketing is not allowed.
The words used on the video by the doctor were found to be horrific by the American public. “We have become very good at extracting hearts, lungs, and livers, because we know, and we try not to crush those parts of the body” according to one of the videos filming Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s Medical Services Director.
The American Federation of Planned Parenthood manages 700 clinics that practice abortions, including late-term abortions, which are authorized by American law. Although partially supported by private funding the association also receives public funding for its’ information campaigns on contraception and family planning, which represent 40 % of its budget.
In reaction to the videos, the Republican majority at the House of Representatives voted a law on September 18th, demanding a one-year freeze on public funding for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, until the issue has been clarified. An additional bill was voted for approving penal sanctions for doctors who do not intervene to save the life of an infant born alive who survived an abortion.
Even if the bill will probably not be confirmed by the Democratic-majority Senate, the pressure still remains high as long as more concrete evidence has not been shown. The directors of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America defend their position of making a profit and affirm that they sell aborted fetus body parts at “cost price”.
