Today an anti-abortion group released a fourth undercover video claiming that Planned Parenthood is selling fetal tissue. The videos have been described as upsetting and disturbing. Planned Parenthood has repeatedly said it has not done anything illegal and is not making money from fetal tissue. Today we present you with a few of the diverse perspectives we found on this sensitive news story.
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Snippets from the Right
Guest writer, Wall Street Journal Opinion
"Abortion is legal, but taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for it.
...
The videos, secretly recorded by anti-abortion activists, show the doctors discussing, among other things, the best way to ensure a 'less crunchy' aborted fetus. It’s gruesome stuff, especially for anyone who has viewed the sonogram of an unborn child. Planned Parenthood’s defenders are crying foul over the secret taping, but these same folks didn’t object when Mitt Romney was taped in 2012 discussing the '47%.'
Their real worry is that the public might begin to figure out that Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider and that taxpayers are subsidizing it. More broadly, the episode might return the abortion debate back to a middle ground that allows some sensible regulation and limits on abortion."
Snippets from the Left
Guest writer, Washington Post
"These extremists… heavily edited the footage to make false and absurd assertions about our standards and services. They spent three years doing everything they could — not to uncover wrongdoing, but rather to create it. They failed.
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The federal funding Planned Parenthood health centers receive goes toward preventive medicine — breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment, well-woman exams — that millions of low- and middle-income women across the country rely on. Those are the services that would be lost. Some politicians claim that ending support to Planned Parenthood is related to abortion services, knowing full well that because of the Hyde amendment there has been no federal funding of abortion services except for very narrow exceptions for nearly four decades — and that low-income women have been prevented full access to abortion as a result."
Snippets from the Center
"The latest in a series of undercover sting videos features a woman who says she worked for a company that harvested organs from fetuses aborted at Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood leaders say the videos are heavily edited and that they're not making money from facilitating fetal tissue donation for medical research. But the controversy over the videos is becoming a campaign issue — for both Democrats and Republicans.
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'I call upon our friends in the mainstream media to ask Hillary Clinton if she is pleased that she has so much passionate support from Planned Parenthood, an entity that appears to be a national criminal enterprise,' Cruz said.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has insisted that the organization has broken no laws. She told ABC News this weekend that the videos are a product of a 'three-year effort to entrap doctors.'"