Planned Parenthood to Stop Accepting Payments for Tissue Donation

Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday it would no longer accept payments from companies that use tissue left over from abortions for research, bending to pressure in the wake of undercover videos targeting the group.

In a letter to the director of the National Institutes of Health, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said the payments had become fodder for anti-abortion activists. While the organization will continue to donate the tissue, its affiliates will no longer be permitted to recoup any costs from providing those donations, she said.

“Our decision is first and foremost about preserving the ability of our patients to donate tissue, and to expose our opponents’ false charges about this limited but important work,” Richards wrote.