How likely is this to be true? These articles are claiming that Planned Parenthood sells fetus body parts for cash.

That slimy little piece is just crawling with oily clues regarding its credibility, starting at the top with the 2 outfits Center for Medical Progress and Live Action News. The thing that puzzles me most about this sort of nonsense is that there exists a substantial audience of dimwits willing to accept it as gospel. Ask yourself whether the so called liberal bias of the mainstream media would prevent the reporting of a high profile official in Planned Parenthood trafficking body parts from unborn fetuses. Or even better, that pro abortion government agencies would shun the arrest and conviction of said official. The piece is beyond misinformation. It’s insulting. It assumes its readers are fools, and in this assumption, well—“some of the people all of the time”

I did think it suspicious that NOTHING has been mentioned outside of a few far right blogs. Also suspicious that Planned Parenthood has said nothing at all. If this were seriously happening, you’d think they’d have some sort of official statement out by now.

I never thought it was true, but I was surprised at how many times it kept popping up on my feed and I found nothing to say against it. Now it’s getting removed and people are complaining about being censored. It’s all over twitter, too.

Consider the source which is connected to an anti-abortion organization.

This is absolutely not true. Not even medically sound. Stupid, horrible, vile lies.

Planned Parenthood released a response:

“In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different. At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or Planned Parenthood. In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.

A well-funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research. Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.”

At one point in the video the lady from Planned Parenthood says “Every provider has had patients who want to donate their tissue, and they absolutely want to accommodate them. They just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as this clinic is selling tissue, this clinic is making money off of this.”

Then there is a cut, so we don’t hear what may have been said after that. Based on the timecode, there is about 1 minute and 30 seconds cut from the video.

Then next clip is a discussion about price range $30 to $100 per specimen, but it’s not apparent exactly what they are talking about…

In the current sociopolitical climate, the truth is whatever the reader wants it to be, regardless of actual facts.

Personally, I’d say this one is propaganda, but I know that those who want to demonize Planned Parenthood will swallow this hook, line and sinker.

Sounds about as likely as Planned Parenthood’s giant Abortionplex.

It is a fake story backed by fake video footage. Even some of the comments attached to the story on the originating website say the same thing.

I also rooted around snopes.com and came up empty. So I passed the alleged claim on to them to look into (or not.)

As to The Federalist website itself, I am hugely suspicious because it has no “About Us” web page link. If they are legitimate and above board, what are they deliberately hiding?

The footage is apparently real. Planned Parenthood didn’t deny that in their statement.

It’s just been cleverly edited to create the illusion that the lady from Planned Parenthood was talking about the costs of SELLING “tissue” when in fact she was likely talking about reimbursable costs like “the cost to transport tissue to research centers.”

Selling parts for what? No way this is true.

Midafternoon update: Snopes.com now has a post. about this. What they have uncovered to date casts even more doubt on the validity of this allegation, and on the organization behind the article mentioned in the OP.

It looks like the Center for Medical Progress is just the latest in a chain of shadow organizations that have sprung up over the past 20 years. These organizations have one mission: undermine & destroy Planned Parenthood.

If what @Lawn posted is correct, I don’t see any problem with donating fetal tissue and placenta if it benefits science and possibly helps people who are ill.

They only see it as “tissue”, they are out to make a buck, if they can slide it off to some lab, foreign or domestic for a price, I would not be surprised. That wax exhibit on anatomy used real dead corpses, who knows where they got them, I bet some were paid for

@Hypocrisy_Central

No, they are not “out to make a buck” as they are not paid for the tissue (aside from being reimbursed for certain costs, such as transportation). This is fairly common in the medical field. I myself have once or twice agreed to allow my tissue (removed during surgery) to be donated to medical research. Was never offered a dime for it though.

Also, all the the bodies used by Body Worlds are donated to them.

@Darth_Algar but clinics performing abortions or growing viable embryos for IVF are strictly prohibited from doing this in most states because of the stupid laws that were passed regarding stem cell research. This is a fake video made by a group who will use what ever tactic they think they can get away with to scare monger and shut down clinics.

@cazzie

Yes.

@cazzie They wouldn’t do that if it didn’t work though. Then again, most inclined to believe that have their mind already made up and just use those tactics to “prove” their point.

@jerv I know it works, because people are stupid.

Relevant

I have followed this story for a couple of weeks now and have not seen or heard anything that has changed my mind about it.

What does that mean @rojo?

Sorry @cazzie I could have sworn I answered this question when it was asked but I guess not.

But basically my opinion was it was a heavily edited propaganda piece designed to fire up the christian conservative base and they (the base) would continue to worry it like a dog with a new chew toy for months to come. It struck me as the same kind of crap put out to denigrate ACORN; turns out I was right in this.

Nothing I have subsequently read or heard has changed this opinion.

Oh, for f*ck’s sake.

Sure, it’s a cynical attempt by Republicans to turn up the heat on the “culture war” by getting their religious conservative base fired up. And sure, Planned Parenthood appears to have done nothing wrong. In fact, I would be quite upset to hear that fetal tissue and organs were not being used for research. But that could just be because my sister has MS, my father has Parkinson’s, and I’m a human being that happens to care about people.

But, can someone come out strongly and shut this whole “defund Planned Parenthood” down – with confidence and strength? I’m not a Democrat, and now I remember why. I’m looking for a f*cking spine out there and only seeing jellyfish. Don’t play into this game, and announce that you’re not going to. Turn the discussion to wage inequality, climate change, jobs creation, healthcare, etc. It’s only July of 2015, and we’re going to sit back and watch the Democrats’ wishy-washy apologetic dances in attempts to dodge Republican bullshit for the next 15 months?

Also, this is why religion is dangerous.