From the August 2015 New England Journal of Medicine, an editorial:

Planned Parenthood is under attack — again.

This time, a campaign of misinformation about

the retrieval of fetal tissue used in research and

therapy is the excuse. When women have made

the decision to terminate a pregnancy, Planned

Parenthood allows them the opportunity to have

the fetal tissue that would otherwise be discarded

be used by qualified researchers to help

answer important medical questions.

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The organization does so carefully, following all applicable

laws and ethical guidelines. Planned Parenthood, its

physicians, and the researchers who do this work

should be praised, not damned. The research is

not easy to do, but it has benefited

millions of people worldwide. If the antichoice

forces were allowed to rule the day, these

advances would never have been made.

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We strongly support Planned Parenthood not

only for its efforts to channel fetal tissue into

important medical research but also for its other

work as one of the country’s largest providers of

health care for women, especially poor women.

In 2013, the most recent year for which data are

available, Planned Parenthood provided services

to 2.7 million women, men, and young people

during 4.6 million health center visits.

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At least 60% of these patients benefited from public

health coverage programs such as the nation’s

family-planning program (Title X) and Medicaid.

At least 78% of these patients lived with incomes

at or below 150% of the federal poverty level.

Planned Parenthood’s services included nearly

400,000 Pap tests, nearly 500,000 breast examinations.

Examinations, nearly 4.5 million tests for sexually

transmitted illnesses (including HIV), and treatments.

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The contraception services that Planned

Parenthood delivers may be the single greatest

effort to prevent the unwanted pregnancies that

result in abortions.

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It is shameful that a radical antichoice group

whose goal is the destruction of Planned Parenthood

continues to twist the facts to achieve its

ends. We thank the women who made the choice

to help improve the human condition through

their tissue donation; we applaud the people who

make this work possible and those who use

these materials to advance human health. We are

outraged by those who debase these women, this

work, and Planned Parenthood by distorting the

facts for political ends.