A doctor who formerly worked for Planned Parenthood has described in detail how the organization would "coerce" women to have abortions and then carry out a fetal donation process that resulted in financial benefits for the group.
According to
the Daily Signal, Abby Johnson participated in the process for eight years while an employee at a southeast Texas clinic. She ultimately resigned her post and became a pro-life activist.
She said that the discussion about participating in a fetal tissue study was not raised until a woman signed her consent form for an abortion, at which point she was told about the value of fetal tissue donations as a possible way of contributing to life-saving treatments.
"We never discussed, 'They may want just a leg, or an arm, or these specific organs.' That would create a sense of humanity in their unborn child.
"And really, we would even shy away from calling it fetal tissue research because just calling it tissue sanitizes it — the women don’t necessarily think about the body of their baby, they’re just thinking about blood and tissue," Johnson told the Signal.
She said that the organization would have a contract with a research facility that would pay usually $200 per specimen, and that staff was compensated $20 for every patient they were able to enroll in a study.
"It creates coercive tactics," she said.
After the abortion, the fetus was put into a jar or tube and transferred to lab where a conception technician would empty the material into a dish, similar to what was shown in the
fourth and fifth videos released by the Center for Medical Progress.
Fetal body parts were then selected, bagged, and shipped on dry ice to the company Planned Parenthood was contracted with, she said.
Johnson said that despite the gruesome process, she does not believe Planned Parenthood is breaking the law.
"The way that the law is written currently, it allows them to charge for these certain items as long as they are coded correctly on a line-item budget. And that’s the problem with the law, is that it’s so subjective as far as the cost.
"As long as they code it as, we need $100 for extra work in collecting the tissue — well, there is no extra work. And that’s what the videos are showing, with Dr. Mary Gatter, she said, 'We don’t have to change anything.' That’s true: they don’t have to do anything."