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.