Planned Parenthood President Apologizes for Tone of Undercover Video

On Thursday, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards responded to a video circulating which allegedly depicts one of the organization’s employees discussing the sale of body parts of aborted fetuses.

“Recently an organization that opposes safe and legal abortion used secretly recorded, heavily edited videos to make outrageous claims about programs that help women donate fetal tissue for medical research,” Richards says in a video statement. “I want to be really clear, the allegation that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true.”

The video was recorded by an anti-abortion group known as The Center for Medical Progress and features Senior Director of Medical Services Deborah Nucatola speaking quite casually about the details of abortion procedures.

While the organization does give patients the option to donate fetal tissues, they are never sold and the process of donation is strictly regulated by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Human Research Protections.

“Our top priority is the compassionate care that we provide,” Richards continued. “In the video, one of our staff members speaks in a way that does not reflect that compassion, this is unacceptable and I personally apologize for the staff member’s tone and statements.”