Stomach-churning emails show Planned Parenthood negotiating terms regarding the donation of aborted fetuses for medical research.
The emails discuss fetal tissue like any other commodity such as sugar or rice, nonchalantly negotiating for fetuses up to 23 weeks old from elective abortions.
A heavily-redacted so-called “Research Plan” submitted to the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Institutional Review Board and approved in 2018 states scientists wanted 2,500 fetuses from up to almost the sixth month of gestation for experimentation.
“We will collect tissues from fetuses ranging from 4 to 23 weeks gestational age from subjects undergoing elective surgical pregnancy termination at Planned Parenthood in San Diego,” the plan states.
Although selling fetal tissue is illegal, donating it is not illegal. The contract between UCSD and Planned Parenthood appears to allow Planned Parenthood to retain “intellectual property rights relating to the” fetal tissue, although it also does not grant UCSD the independent right to “commercialize” the tissue.
The fetuses were taken to Perionatal Repository at UCSD to be researched.
The emails were shared with The Post by controversial pro-life activist David Daleiden and his organization, the Center for Medical Progress, who obtained them through a California state public records request.
The majority of healthy infants born at 23 weeks can survive with modern medical care.
The youngest surviving premature baby, Curtis Means, was born at 21 weeks and two days in April 2021 in Alabama.
“These documents show that Planned Parenthood is supplying healthy babies who are old enough to survive outside the womb from late term abortions to the University of California’s royalty-generating experiments,” Daleiden told The Post.
“After months of pro-abortion forces and media gaslighting the public about whether late term abortions on healthy babies and healthy mothers actually happen — to see it spelled out this explicitly in the records of a government-funded body is truly shocking [and] also extremely clarifying for the conversation on abortion our country is currently having.”
The Post cannot confirm whether any of the fetuses supplied to UCSD were healthy or able to survive outside the womb prior to the abortions.
Daleiden also accuses Planned Parenthood of racism, citing the consent forms from Planned Parenthood involving the donation of pregnancy tissue from their abortions which are given to pregnant women.
The English language consent forms contain 15 bullet points including language disclosing that the donated tissue may have “significant commercial value.” However, that specific information is not included in the Spanish language consent forms which contain only 14 bullet points. The Post viewed both forms.
“I don’t understand why Planned Parenthood…. and UCSD felt that Spanish speaking mothers did not deserve to know that the body parts of their aborted children would be ‘commercialized” while English speaking mothers did deserve to have this fact disclosed to them,” Daleiden told The Post.
“The only explanation I can think why this discrepancy persisted for at least four years is blatant institutional racism.”
UCSD did not respond to a request for comment by The Post.
The documents Daleiden received through the public records request showed transfers of aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood to UC San Diego, taking place under an ongoing “Biological Materials Transfer Agreement” contract.
That contract, made for “valuable consideration”, grants UCSD “access” to “fetal and placental tissue, which are proprietary materials of [Planned Parenthood San Diego]”. The parties agree that in granting “access” to the “proprietary” aborted fetal body parts, “PPSD shall retain all right, title, and interest in and to the Material, including but not limited to all right, title, and interest in patents and patent applications and other intellectual property rights relating to the Material”.
One email from researchers to Planned Parenthood shown to The Post notes how they have 27 heart samples but requested more, of varying fetal ages including 15 weeks and later.
“She agrees with me that hearts should be pretty easy to collect,” writes one UCSD clinician.
Planned Parenthood’s national office did not respond to an email from The Post. Neither did the pro-abortion organization, the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Daleiden has been under investigation by the California State Attorney General’s office since 2015 when then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris went after him, allegedly at the behest of Planned Parenthood.
He had released undercover videos of their executives discussing fees and prices associated with the transfer of for fetal tissues in July 2015. Planned Parenthood has denied that these videos show any illegal conduct, but rather show the legal, not-for-profit donation of fetal tissue to research firms.
“At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does — with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards,” Planned Parenthood spokesman Eric Ferrero said at the time.
“In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field,” he said in a statement.
Daleiden faces eight felony charges and possible jail time in California for making the undercover videos as well as for “manufacturing” a fake driver’s license in order to enter Planned Parenthood offices in Houston. A trial date has tentatively been set for next month in San Francisco Superior Court. Daleiden has pleaded not guilty to the charges
Daleiden’s legal troubles have not dissuaded him and his fellow activists from continuing to expose what they claim are illegal practices involving harvested fetal tissue.
“It’s a pattern that repeats across the country, large late term abortion clinics that have partnerships with their local taxpayer funded research universities,” Daleiden said.
In March, US Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called for a federal investigation into Planned Parenthood based on Daleiden’s work.
The transfer of any aborted human fetal tissue for “valuable consideration” across state lines is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000. Under the law, “valuable consideration” does not include “reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of” fetal tissue.