Embryo for sale: everything you need to know about the scandal with Planned Parenthood

Is abortion considered to be murder, is the embryo human, and until what month can the pregnancy be terminated? Is it ethical to use embionic tissue in medical research? All presidential candidates argue on these topics in America, but particularly heated discussions have erupted after the scandal surrounding the Planned Parenthood Fund, which receives government funding. In the video, which was published by opponents of abortion, the officials of the foundation in an expensive restaurant discussed with the “customer” the sale of parts of embryos.

The scandal reached the political level after it turned out that the famous neurosurgeon Ben Carson used abortive material in his research. The piquancy of the situation is that Carson takes part in the presidential campaign of the Republican Party, known for its rejection of abortion.

The “Forum” understood what Planned Parenthood is doing, and how the scandal affected the political races in the United States.

Better than never

The situation with abortions in the United States is strikingly different from Russia, Ukraine or Israel.

In Russia and Ukraine, abortions are regulated almost equally. A healthy woman can do it on your own until the twelfth week of pregnancy (about three months). Abortion after this period is considered a crime, and can be given a term for it. The only exception in Russia is pregnancy after violence. In such cases, an abortion is allowed up to the twenty-second week (five months).

In Israel, a woman’s desire to terminate a pregnancy is not enough - permission from a special commission is required. For periods of up to twelve weeks, such permission is “automatically” granted to minors, women over forty years of age, victims of rape, incest, unmarried people, as well as those for whom abortion is recommended for medical reasons.

In the US, the approach to abortion is radically different. Absolutely legal to terminate a pregnancy can be up to the twenty-fourth week (six months). This overly liberal attitude towards abortion has been splitting American society for years. There were cases when doctors managed to save the life of a six-month embryo, so the opponents of abortions called the killing abortion at such a late period.

the Forbidden fruit

A video recently released by the Medical Progress Center, where a doctor from the Family Planning Foundation Deborah Nukatola discusses the sale of body parts and embryo tissues after abortions while having lunch at a fancy restaurant, made everyone look at the problem from a new angle.

The fund does not consider the embryo in the first trimester of pregnancy as a living being, therefore don't count abortion is murder, and the study of fetal tissue is desecration.

As it turned out, the Center for Medical Progress, which opposes abortion, has been recording video for three years with a hidden camera, talking to various employees from the Family Planning Foundation.

In another video, a representative of the Foundation is offered to change the abortion scheme so that the fetal tissues are intact. For this, abortions should be carried out longer, and the pain in a woman will be stronger, which is ethically unacceptable in medicine.

In addition, constantly talking about assistance to the Fund is fixed on the video - they say, employees try, separate fabrics, and these are labor and time costs, so help with barter (the clinic gives the material, and the customer - donations) would be very appropriate.

In response to this compromising, the leadership of Planned Parenthood stated that all videos are “heavily edited”, and if you view the full 12-hour version of the shooting, then you will not find fault with them - there are no violations.

Prohibit can not be left

“From what moment do human rights begin to spread to a living being?” No candidate for the presidency of the United States can avoid this question. His downside is abortion: until what month can you terminate a pregnancy so that it does not count as murder?

Republicans advocate for the life of unborn children and do not support abortion. After the scandal with Planned Parenthood, they worked hard to make the deprivation of government funding for abortion clinics key issue of the 2016 presidential campaign year.

So, Republican Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, demanded cessation of funding for the fund: “The next president must stop funding Planned Parenthood, he said. - You can the same amount (although I'm not sure we need to spend half a billion dollars on women's health issues) be directed to other existing health care organizations to provide quality care across a wide range of health issues." The Democrats immediately attacked him for these words, accusing them of “war against women”.

However, Bush should really know a lot about the planning fund families. His grandfather was a treasurer and spent the first financial income for the Fund, and his father, a Texas congressman from the Republicans, was a sponsor of the family planning program.

“For too long, family planning has been hiding behind a well-thought-out cover — the protection of women's health. In fact, this is a business of killing unborn children on an industrial scale. Hundreds of thousands of annual abortions provide almost 40% of income. Simply put, the Family Planning Foundation is the country's biggest speculator ”, - said another Republican and Texas senator Ted Cruz.

Another Republican, Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and presidential candidate, also attacked the creator of the Family Planning Foundation with harsh criticism. is he He claimedthat the Foundation located most of its clinics in black neighborhoods to "control the population" and that its founder, Margaret Sanger, was "not particularly enamored with black people."

Carson is also convinced that most medical research can be done without using fetal tissue after an abortion. However, some doctors do not agree with him. They consider: embryo tissue samples facilitate the process studying the development of the human body, which, in turn, will help create more effective drugs for treating degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. In addition, fetal tissue is used to research Ebola, blindness and HIV vaccines.

After a harsh statement by Ben Carson, opponents in the medical camp turned his arguments against him. Dr. Jan Günther published a document in a blog post that proves that Carson and three colleagues in 1992 were trying to better understand brain development by using tissue from fetuses aborted in the ninth and seventeenth weeks.

Now Ben Carson himself had to make excuses. “You have to look at the intentions. If you kill a fetus and sell the tissue, that's completely different from taking a dead sample and examining it,” the neurosurgeon said, trying to explain the difference between his research and his activities. Planned Parenthood.

Democrats believe that women have the right to choose: to give birth or not, and the state should not interfere. At the same time, they advocate a reduction in the number of abortions by educational and contraceptive methods.

“I will stand proudly with Planned Parenthood and will never stop fighting to protect the right of every woman in this country to decide for herself what is most important to her health,” said Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

She believes that abortion should remain legal, but it should rarely be resorted to and carried out safely.

What does Planned Parenthood

The Family Planning Foundation is involved in birth control and provides access to affordable medical care in the United States. In addition, he provides free contraceptives and pills to everyone who has insurance, including free Obamacare, sponsored by the state.

Фонд Planned Parenthood - non-profit organization and can not be profitable. Therefore, every year she is allocated 500 million dollars from the federal budget.

In 2013, 14% of patients Planned Parenthood across the country were blacks. This is equal to the share of the African American population of the United States.

New results Reuters / Ipsos survey show that most Americans support federal funding for services like the Family Planning Foundation.