University of Texas researchers appear to have paid thousands of dollars for aborted babies’ body parts from Planned Parenthood between 2010 and 2011, according to newly uncovered documents.
The documents, released Thursday by Texas attorney Brisco Cain, who represents Operation Rescue, include a series of invoices from Planned Parenthood to the University’s Medical Branch. The invoices show charges ranging from $1,500 to $3,750 for “consent payments,” or aborted babies’ body parts, that Planned Parenthood supplied to university researchers.
Invoice Between UTMB Galveston and Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast
“Because Planned Parenthood was selling to publicly funded universities, this means that our tax dollars went to buy aborted baby remains and ended up in the pockets of Planned Parenthood executives,” said Cheryl Sullenger, Senior Vice President of Operation Rescue. “Yet Devon Anderson turned a blind eye to this crime while charging the people that reported the crimes. This injustice must not be allowed to stand.”
SIGN THE PETITION: Drop the Charges Against David Daleiden and Charge Planned Parenthood
Anderson is the Harris County, Texas district attorney involved in a recent grand jury decision to ignore evidence of Planned Parenthood selling aborted babies’ body parts and indict whistle-blower David Daleiden instead. Her ties to abortion advocates have many people questioning whether the indictment was politically motivated.
“It is now clear that the Harris County grand jury never really investigated Planned Parenthood,” Sullenger said. “Because of this new evidence, we renew our call for a new grand jury to investigate Planned Parenthood to be directed by an independent special prosecutor not related in any way to Devon Anderson, anyone in the Harris County District Attorney’s office, or Anderson’s friend, Chip Lewis.”
Cain, who represents the pro-life group, said Thursday that the invoices “appear to throw water on Planned Parenthood’s claim that they do not profit from the sale of fetal tissue but only make enough to cover their costs.”
The pro-life group explains how the new documents point to illegal activity:
The invoices that originated from Planned Parenthood divided their bills into two general categories. First was the “reimbursement for study supplies” which appear to be costs related to the fetal tissue. Reimbursement for hard costs is allowable under the law.
The second was “consent payments,” which appears to be a designation where Planned Parenthood ‘hid’ the profit. This payment would be illegal.
The “consent payments” listed on the invoices refer to aborted babies’ body parts, according to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Director of Research Melissa Farrell’s own statements, said Daleiden, head of the Center for Medical Progress.
In August, the Center for Medical Progress released an undercover video of Farrell explaining that Planned Parenthood uses the words “per consent” to charge for aborted babies’ body parts “in order to ‘frame’ the project budget in a way that will look legal ‘on paper,’” Daleiden said. Farrell has overseen the affiliate’s sales of aborted baby body parts for a decade, he added.
The newly uncovered Planned Parenthood invoices list the “consent fee” followed by the number of specimen and then a charge of $25 to $150 per specimen. The number of fetal specimen ranges from 12 to 32 on the invoices, which are dated from 2010 to 2011. Farrell’s signature also is on several of them. A separate line item for “Reimbursement for study supplies” is listed on the invoices with totals ranging from about $500 to $2,000.
The video of the Houston Planned Parenthood makes it appear the Planned Parenthood abortion business also may be selling the “fully intact” bodies of unborn babies purposefully born alive and left to die. The video shows Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch’s track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact aborted babies.
“Where we probably have an edge over other organizations, our organization has been doing research for many many years,” explains Farrell in the video. When researchers need a specific part from the aborted fetus, Farrell says, “We bake that into our contract, and our protocol, that we follow this, so we deviate from our standard in order to do that.”
In the video, Farrell also indicates that the specimen sales from her department contribute significantly to the affiliate’s overall finances: “I think everyone realizes, especially because my department contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States. Larger than any the other affiliates’ combined.”
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Despite the mounting evidence against Planned Parenthood, this week a Texas grand jury indicted Daleiden and another pro-life activist, Sandra Merritt, behind the videos. Daleiden and Merritt were charged with one felony related to tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to buying human tissue. The felony charge was in reference to the use of a fake ID. If convicted, Daleiden faces 20 years in prison while Planned Parenthood officials face no legal consequences for their actions.
