Planned Parenthood Ends Fetal Tissue Donation Reimbursements

Seeking to douse a months-long scandal over providing fetal tissue for research, women's healthcare giant Planned Parenthood said Tuesday it will no longer accept reimbursements for costs of the donations.

The move is aimed at debunking what the group calls a "disingenuous argument" by critics attacking Planned Parenthood over the procedure.

Debate exploded earlier this year, when anti-abortion activists released secretly-recorded videos showing the organization's officials discussing use of aborted fetal tissue for medical research.

Conservative critics, many of whom seek to outlaw abortion in the United States, have accused the organization of selling fetal organs and body parts for profit, and encouraging women to have abortions in order to expand such operations.

Planned Parenthood strongly denies the allegations.

"Over the last two months, opponents of safe and legal abortion have turned patently false claims about our role in fetal tissue donation into fodder to advance their extreme political agenda," Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards told the director of the National Institutes of Health in a letter.

"Today, we're taking their smokescreen away."

Richards explained that each of the group's health centers involved in donating tissue after an abortion for medical research will adopt a policy of accepting "no reimbursement for its reasonable expenses."

Going forward, she added, "all of our health centers will follow the same policy, even if it means they will not recover reimbursements" permitted under the law.

Planned Parenthood, a non-governmental organization that receives federal money, is the largest abortion provider in the country, making it a primary target for groups seeking to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion across the United States.

It has been under sustained attack from congressional Republicans, some of whom want to de-fund it on grounds that the government should not be paying for abortions.

Federal funds are barred by law from being used on any abortions except in very limited circumstances, such as if the mother was the victim of rape.

The activists who released edited footage from hours of recordings have accused the officials of discussing a change of protocol to preserve intact certain organs, which would be illegal.

Richards, testifying before Congress this month, labeled the accusations "offensive and categorically untrue."

Many conservative lawmakers have refused to vote for government spending legislation that does not de-fund the organization.

Reacting to news of the end of reimbursements, congresswoman Marsha Blackburn said "it's about time" the group recognized the need to "end this disgusting practice."

House Republicans voted last week to create a special committee to investigate Planned Parenthood's practices.