Tech: Fetal Tissue Taken Without Consent at Planned Parenthood • AfterAbortion.org

8/12/15

In a new video released this morning by the Center for Medical Progress, Holly O’Donnell, a former procurement technician for Planned Parenthood partner StemExpress, claims that women undergoing abortions at Planned Parenthood may have had their blood and fetal tissue harvested for sale without their consent.

PPConsentForm1 — Consent Form From Planned Parenthood of Mar Monte

O’Donnell says in the video that technicians were given a list of items that StemExpress wanted and matched it against a patient schedule for each day. The technicians would then pick out which women they wanted to ask for donations and meet with them to get their consent — often before the patient had consented to an abortion. Federal law requires that patients consent to abortion before they consent to donating fetal tissue.

O’Donnell said that the consent form stated that the woman had already agreed to an abortion, even if that wasn’t true:

“[The form states] I’ve already consented that I’m going to get an abortion. Yeah, no. Didn’t happen all the time. Some of these women don’t know if they’re going to get an abortion. Some don’t even … they’re not 100 percent sure they’re going to get it done.”

Even more disturbingly, O’Donnell noted that her co-workers would not always get the consent of the woman (also a violation of federal law).

If there was a higher gestation and the technicians needed it, they were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.

She described a case in which she met with a patient who said no to donating tissue. Later, O’Donnell saw another technician taking blood samples from the woman. When she asked what the technician had said to obtain the woman’s consent, she was told, “Nothing.”

“Basically, you just went in there and took her blood, and you’re going to be taking her fetus without her knowing,” O’Donnell said.

She also described patients being asked for consent while in deep emotional distress about having an abortion, sometimes while crying or throwing up from medication, saying “half these women are already on edge as it is.”

We already have evidence that abortion businesses are willing to use pressure, coercion and misinformation to sell abortion. So the claim that fetal tissue procurement companies and their partners in the abortion industry are exploiting women at their most vulnerable to obtain their consent — or failing to seek it at all — is not much of a surprise.

Watch the video below or visit here to watch it.

And for those who have had or been involved in an abortion and are struggling following the release of these videos, there is hope and help. Visit here to find more information and links to groups that offer support and a path to healing.