Planned Parenthood Faces New Allegations of Selling Aborted Fetal Tissue
‘New evidence shows Planned Parenthood sells late-term aborted baby body parts in violation of federal law, for far more money than has ever been discussed.’
Newly released documents reveal an alleged alliance between Planned Parenthood and the University of California–San Diego to profit from the “harvesting and sale” of aborted human fetuses for research patents.
“This new evidence shows Planned Parenthood sells late-term aborted baby body parts in violation of federal law, for far more money than has ever been discussed before,” David Daleiden, founder and president of the California-based Center for Medical Progress, which filed the public records request, said in a statement earlier this month. “Planned Parenthood’s national headquarters knew about and approved these sales of aborted babies for valuable consideration as part of government-funded research grants.”
The documents show Planned Parenthood transferring aborted fetal body parts to the University of California–San Diego (UCSD) explicitly for “valuable consideration” in exchange for ownership of the university’s patents and intellectual property developed experimenting with them.
Details of the alleged deal are spelled out in a redacted “Biological Materials Transfer Agreement” that grants UCSD “access” to “fetal and placental tissue” that are the “proprietary materials” of Planned Parenthood San Diego. In return, the deal gives the nonprofit rights to “patents” and “intellectual property” developed through experiments with the “material.”
The contract, signed in 2009, was updated to reflect the nonprofit’s name change to “Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest” in 2014, with the parties specifying that the terms and conditions of the original contract remained in full force and effect.
File photo of landscaping on the University of California–San Diego Health La Jolla campus. Courtesy of University of California-San Diego Health
UCSD emails from 2017 refer to the contract while updating an additional contract for clinical personnel, and in emails from late 2020, the university sought to be “especially careful” about “any rights” that providers of fetal tissue “retain” in the “material.”
Despite federal laws prohibiting the exchange of aborted human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration,” the university used the fetal tissue for research leading to patents, according to Mr. Daleiden’s statement.
The University of California system generated more than $127 million in revenue for all patent inventions during the 2021–22 academic year, Mr. Daleiden claims in his statement.
Any violation of such federal laws is punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $500,000, according to the Center for Medical Progress.
Email threads between Planned Parenthood and UCSD also reveal plans for collaborative research meetings. In one thread, Planned Parenthood emailed UCSD to set up a quarterly meeting and agreed to discuss “payment” to its abortion training initiatives within the framework of its fetal tissue research partnership.
UCSD writes that as part of a meeting, it “will have results to share on samples recently collected, and will also likely have more to discuss re: the [REDACTED] fellowship.” Planned Parenthood replies that there are “no current issues with the collection program,” but that it will “have some questions about payment to the residency program.”
The collaboration involved Planned Parenthood’s training programs at UCSD and other taxpayer-funded universities where they allegedly supply fetal tissues for research purposes.
Documents also show UCSD donated $10,000 to Planned Parenthood’s national research department at a 2021 fundraiser and show a registration form for “the fetal body parts harvesting in San Diego,” according to the center.
In 2015, Mr. Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress released an undercover video series showing Planned Parenthood executives negotiating the costs of fetal tissue from the alleged “harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts” and discussing modifications to abortion procedures to secure more intact organs. The videos exposed an aborted baby organ market between abortion clinics and research facilities.
A woman holds up a sign from the podium of an Orange Unified School District meeting in Orange, Calif., on Aug. 17, 2023. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times
The exposé revealed that various for-profit companies sent tech workers into Planned Parenthood abortion clinics to harvest the organs of aborted babies and then package them for resale to research facilities.
Last year, the center reported on records, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request, confirming a federal investigation by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General into the National Institutes of Health’s funded fetal tissue bank at the University of Pittsburgh, which is allegedly supplied by Planned Parenthood abortion doctors, according to Mr. Daleiden’s statement.
Mr. Daleiden has urged federal investigators to widen the probe to include Planned Parenthood’s activities in San Diego “and every other location where this $1.8 billion abortion business supplies aborted babies for taxpayer-funded experiments,” and he has accused the organization’s leaders of participating in the “government-sponsored trafficking of late-term aborted babies.”
The Center for Medical Progress also released a video about its most recent public records findings.
Greg Burt, vice president of the California Family Council, a faith-based advocacy organization that promotes traditional family values, said in a March 18 statement that the agreement between Planned Parenthood and UCSD treated “innocent, vulnerable human beings just like animals.”
“Every human life is sacred from conception, and selling unborn baby parts for research is morally abhorrent,” Mr. Burt said. “This deeply revolting news reaffirms the need to pressure politicians to implement life-affirming policies and demand the laws against these crimes be enforced.”
Educational institutions and the scientific community “shouldn’t get a pass when they violate human dignity,” he said.
Planned Parenthood didn’t respond to requests for comment about the allegations.
Brad Jones
Author
Brad Jones is an award-winning journalist based in Southern California.
