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News of the Day ... In Perspective11/27/2007
Criminal charges against Planned Parenthood filed in Kansas; clinic ships body parts to order
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, has been charged by District Attorney Phil Kline with more than 100 counts of violating state abortion and health laws, including the performance of illegal late-term abortions.
Though not the subject of the criminal charges, the clinic participates in a complicated body parts shipment operation. One 24-week female fetus yielded a leg, an arm, a pancreas, a liver, a thymus, and eyes for shipment to eight different researchers. The only way to obtain intact body parts efficiently is through partial-birth abortion.
According to a 1999 price list from Opening Lines, a division of Consultative & Diagnostic Pathology, gonads from aborted babies were going for $550 and a thymus for $100, writes Andrea Lafferty, executive director of Traditional Values Coalition.
A review of 29 patient records from the Overland Park clinic produced 107 criminal charges, 23 felonies and 84 misdemeanors. Charges included failure to determine viability for late-term abortions and filing false information with the government.
In light of the charges, Operation Rescue president Troy Newman called for suspending federal funding to Planned Parenthood operations nationwide (LifeNews.com 10/24/07).
Planned Parenthood�s annual revenue is approaching $1 billion. It receives $300 million in federal funding, and generates $100 million by performing abortions. Since 1970, its affiliates performed more than 4 million abortions, and the rate is increasing. The 264,943 abortions done in 2005 represented a 3.9% increase over 2004. It sold 1.2 million �emergency� birth control kits in 2005, 26.6% more than in 2004. Meanwhile, breast cancer screenings and prenatal care are decreasing (LifeNews.com 5/6/07).
One concern about Planned Parenthood is that it helps to cover up statutory rape. UCLA student Lila Rose, posing as a 15-year-old who had been impregnated by a 23-year-old man, said that Planned Parenthood staff encouraged her to �figure out a birth date that worked� to avoid involvement of the police. Rose said all counseling was aimed at encouraging abortion, including an admonition about the embarrassment her classmates might experience from living with a pregnant student in the dorms. She was told she could obtain Medi-Cal coverage for the procedure (LifeNews.com 5/10/07).
Medical Students for Choice is concerned that future access to abortion might be limited. The number of abortion practitioners fell about 37% between 1982 and 2000. Advocacy groups blame pro-life protests and increasing state regulation of abortion facilities (LifeNews.com 5/22/07).
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