ADF: New Planned Parenthood distraction amounts to admission of guilt
Abortion giant thinks decision to no longer accept payments for aborted baby parts will get it off the hook, but it won’t
WASHINGTON – Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced Tuesday that it will no longer accept payment for aborted baby parts, but Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys say that the move does not exonerate the abortion giant from any wrongdoing or investigations.In a letter to the National Institutes of Health, PPFA president Cecile Richards wrote that the change in Planned Parenthood’s national policy on fetal tissue sales is intended to “take away any basis for attacking Planned Parenthood.” But, as ADF attorneys point out, her letter fails to address allegations that Planned Parenthood affiliates have been engaged in what seems to be a variety of crimes related to the trafficking of baby body parts for profit, altering the method of abortions to obtain intact baby body parts, and performing partial-birth abortions.
“Cecile Richards’ announcement amounts to an admission of guilt. The fire that Planned Parenthood’s misdeeds started has been too hot, and she mistakenly thinks this will put water on it,” said ADF Litigation Counsel Kellie Fiedorek. “Today’s announcement does nothing to address whether Planned Parenthood continues to alter abortions to obtain intact body parts, nor does it address Planned Parenthood’s widespread fraudulent billing practices, documented failures to report the sexual abuse of girls who undergo abortions, and the sexualizing of children.”
“Ms. Richards never once explains how Planned Parenthood calculated the costs of procuring fetal remains in order to sell them because she can’t,” Fiedorek explained. “The price-per-specimen approach she admitted to in her August letter to Congress is a profit-driven system, pure and simple. The American people have a right to get to the bottom of Planned Parenthood’s disturbing activities and to demand that not one more penny of their tax dollars goes to fund them.” (#DefundPP)
In her letter, Richards characterized the decision to stop receiving payments as a decision of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, indicating that trafficking in fetal body parts is a policy of the national organization, and that it bears the responsibility for complying with federal law in addition to its local and regional affiliates.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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ABOUT Kellie Fiedorek
Kellie Fiedorek serves as senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, where she is a member of the Strategic Affairs Team. Since joining ADF in 2012, Fiedorek has defended religious liberty, marriage, and the family against legal attacks. She has authored federal and state legislation, and advised members of Congress, governors, state attorneys general, state legislators, and policy organizations on how to preserve First Amendment freedoms. She has also litigated constitutional cases defending citizens’ freedom to live and work according to their conscience. Fiedorek earned her J.D. from Ave Maria School of Law in 2009. Before graduating from law school, she completed the Alliance Defending Freedom leadership development program to become a Blackstone Fellow in 2008. She is admitted to the bar in Florida, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and multiple federal appellate courts.