1January 2021
The Facts about Planned Parenthood
and Tissue Donation
In July 2015, using multiple illegally recorded videos, a group opposed to legal
abortion called the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) began leveling a series of
claims about practices to facilitate fetal tissue donation for use in medical research at
a small number of Planned Parenthood health centers.
These accusations have been widely discredited in the media and by multiple state
and federal investigations.
CMP Found Guilty of Breaking State and Federal Laws
In January 2016, Planned Parenthood sued the Center for Medical Progress for breaking multiple state
and federal laws. The case went to trial and in November 2019, a jury empaneled by a federal district court in
San Francisco found that the Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, and others who manufactured the
campaign against Planned Parenthood all broke multiple state and federal laws in their efforts to bar access to
reproductive health care.
The jury ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor on every one of its claims, including nding that the defendants
violated the Racketeer Inuenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and engaged in fraud, trespass,
breach of contract, and illegal secret recording. The jury awarded Planned Parenthood both compensatory and
punitive damages totaling more than $2 million for the injuries that Daleiden and his co-conspirators caused.
The trial court made clear that those behind the video campaign engaged in illegal wrongdoing while
no evidence was found of any wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood:
“Simply claiming the mantel [sic] of a journalist does not give someone a license to trespass, illegally
record, or otherwise commit violations of generally applicable laws. The ‘evidence’ defendants actually
gathered and then published as a result of the conduct the jury found was illegal did not itself show any
illegal conduct by Planned Parenthood or plaintiff afliates.”
“[T]here is no evidence that any Federal government entity has concluded that any Planned Parenthood
afliate illegally proted from the sale of fetal tissue or altered procedures in violation of federal laws.”
“[T]here was no evidence submitted at summary judgment or in pre-trial motions to show that any
Planned Parenthood afliate violated any law.”
2January 2021
CMP was also ordered to pay Planned Parenthood’s attorney fees and costs for the trial, totaling over $13.5
million. In addition, David Daleiden and another person behind the videos, Sandra Merritt, are currently
awaiting trial on multiple felony charges in California for their actions leading up to the video campaign.
Planned Parenthood has never and would never sell fetal tissue. This campaign was yet another example
of people opposed to safe and legal abortion seeking to prevent patients from accessing care at Planned
Parenthood health centers, as well as drive legislation that would signicantly curtail people’s access to
reproductive and sexual health care.
Facts About Tissue Donation and Planned Parenthood
• Fetal tissue donation for medical research has led to lifesaving scientic breakthroughs, and this
research has long had bipartisan support.
• Congress passed the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 with overwhelming support
from the House (290-130) and Senate (93-4). Academic institutions and teaching hospitals across the
country have received federal or private grants to support research using donated fetal tissue on a
wide range of conditions including diabetes, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries, hemophilia,
leukemia, sickle cell anemia, ALS, and others.
• No Planned Parenthood afliate is currently facilitating patients’ decisions to donate fetal tissue for use in
medical research. In the past, afliates have done this because it can improve public health and because
their patients have requested it.
• Planned Parenthood has had clear guidance in place for more than a decade to ensure that this
work, like every other service Planned Parenthood provides, follows high ethical and medical standards
and complies with all laws. Planned Parenthood’s guidance in this area goes above and beyond the
legal requirements.
• In October 2015, Planned Parenthood changed our policy on fetal tissue donation to further
counter CMP’s campaign (now widely discredited in the media and by multiple investigations). The
health centers that participate in fetal tissue donation now accept no reimbursement for expenses
related to tissue donation, even though accepting such reimbursements is legal, and instead cover all
expenses related to donation. Planned Parenthood does not and has never had any nancial interest in
fetal tissue donation.
Outcome of Investigations into Planned Parenthood
Following the release of CMP’s heavily edited videos, investigations in at least 13 states concluded that
Planned Parenthood engaged in no wrongdoing. Eight other states declined to investigate at all, citing
lack of evidence. What’s more, none of the multiple, heavily partisan congressional investigations — including a
select panel created for that sole purpose — concluded that Planned Parenthood violated any laws.
• House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), whose
committee conducted one of these investigations, stated that he uncovered no wrongdoing after
examining tens of thousands of pages of material provided by Planned Parenthood to his committee.
• Sen. Patty Murray introduced a resolution in the U.S. Senate calling to disband another Republican-led
panel created to investigate Planned Parenthood, the Select Investigative Panel of the Committee on
Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives, as it had “found no wrongdoing on the part of
Planned Parenthood.”
3January 2021
• Months later, ranking Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee sent a letter to their respective committee leaders in support of
Planned Parenthood, requesting that they suspend investigation for lack of merit.
In addition to these investigations, courts in several states found no evidence of criminal
wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood.
• A U.S. district court judge in Louisiana blocked the governor’s attempt to defund Planned Parenthood
health centers in the state in 2015, writing “the uncontradicted evidence in the record at this time is that
PPGC [Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast] does not perform abortions in Louisiana, is not involved in the
sale of fetal tissue and none of the conduct in question occurred at the PPGC’s two Louisiana facilities.”
• A U.S. district court judge in California prohibited one of the operatives, David Daleiden, and a number
of other anti-abortion extremists from releasing recordings and materials they illegally obtained,
writing that the “defendants engaged in repeated instances of fraud, including the manufacture of fake
documents, the creation and registration with the state of California of a fake company, and repeated
false statements.”
• David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, two of the people behind the videos, were charged with felonies
in both California and Texas. In January 2016, a Texas grand jury issued both felony and misdemeanor
criminal charges against them. While those charges were later dismissed on technical grounds, the pair
are currently awaiting trial on multiple felony charges in California.
Throughout CMP’s malicious campaign, Planned Parenthood health centers continued to provide high-
quality, compassionate health care and education. Planned Parenthood health centers received immense
support from hundreds of grassroots organizations following the attacks, along with 2.4 million signatures
from people showing their support for the organization.
An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey indicated that support for Planned Parenthood, which was already high,
actually increased at the time, and over 4 million new supporters joined Planned Parenthood after the attacks
began in 2015.
Today, Planned Parenthood has 16 million supporters.
Read More:
• Read about Planned Parenthood services and the communities we serve
• Read about the essential role Planned Parenthood plays in providing care across the country
• Read about Planned Parenthood’s services in its annual report and its audited nancial statement and
IRS 990 forms
• Read about the history of political attacks on Planned Parenthood, including decades of doctored
videos, failed entrapments, and false accusations
4January 2021
Additional Resources by Date:
• 1988 Commission Report on fetal tissue donation
(12/14/1988)
• Letter from Janet Heinrich, director, health care - public
health issues, at the Government Accountability Ofce
to the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and
Human Services, and Education on the use of fetal tissue
in research (10/4/2000)
• Letter from Roger Evans, Planned Parenthood’s senior
counsel, to Congress regarding history of harassment
and attacks by anti-abortion opponents (7/20/2015)
• Letter from Roger Evans, Planned Parenthood’s Senior
Counsel, to Congress regarding the second heavily
edited video released by anti-abortion opponents
(7/21/2015)
• Letter from Cecile Richards, president of Planned
Parenthood, to Dr. Francis Collins, director of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), urging an assessment
of fetal tissue research to be led by medical experts
(7/27/2015)
• Frequently Asked Questions on Fetal Tissue Research
from the Congressional Research Service (7/31/2015)
• Associated Press article about current studies using fetal
tissue for scientic research (8/11/2015)
• Letter from Jim Esquea, assistant secretary for
legislation at the Department of Health and Human
Services, to Senators Joni Ernst and Roy Blunt explaining
current legislation and federal funding for fetal tissue
research (8/14/2015)
• Report from forensic experts nding that the CMP
videos were heavily edited, which Planned Parenthood
submitted to congressional leadership (8/25/2015)
• Letter from Cecile Richards to congressional leadership,
in which she provides extensive information and context
about fetal tissue donation (8/27/2015)
• Democrats request Congressional committees suspend
their “one-sided” investigations into Planned Parenthood
(9/3/2015)
• Commentary about research using fetal tissue by Alta
Charo, J.D., a leading bioethicist, published in the New
England Journal of Medicine (9/3/2015)
• Report prepared in 2015 by the Congressional Budget
Ofce (CBO) estimating that as many as 650,000 people
could face reduced access to preventive health care if
Congress were to succeed in blocking Medicaid patients
from seeking care at Planned Parenthood health centers
(9/16/2015)
• Letter from Keith Hall, director of CBO, to Representative
Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader of the U.S. House of
Representatives, projecting the net cost to taxpayers
of barring Planned Parenthood from Medicaid would
be $130 million over 10 years because of an increase
in unintended pregnancies without the high-quality
contraceptive care Planned Parenthood provides
(9/22/2015)
• Cecile Richards’ written testimony before the House
Government Oversight and Reform Committee
(9/29/2015)
• Letter from Cecile Richards to Dr. Francis Collins,
director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
announcing the handful of Planned Parenthood health
centers involved in fetal tissue research will no longer
accept reimbursement in order to take away any basis for
attacking Planned Parenthood in this area (10/13/2015)
• Open letter signed by 41 leading scientists who conduct
research using fetal tissue offering support for the
patients, physicians, and researchers who contribute to
this vital work (10/14/2015)
• Commentary by Planned Parenthood’s Chief Medical
Ofcer in the New England Journal of Medicine, arguing
that the smear campaign is a political effort to ban
abortion in the U.S. (10/14/2015)
• Letter from Cecile Richards to House Speaker Paul
Ryan asking for justication of further congressional
investigations (10/30/2015)
• Open letter signed by over 50 of the nation’s leading
research institutions expressing grave concerns over
attempts to restrict fetal tissue research (11/3/2015)
• Read about the vast majority of Americans who support
Planned Parenthood (December 2015)
• U.S. District Court Order Resolving Unfair Competition
Claim and Entering Judgment (April 2020)
• U.S. District Court Order on Post-Trial Motions
(August 2020)
