Missouri Planned Parenthood won’t comply with subpoena for abortion records

“The investigation did not find that fetal tissue was sold by Planned Parenthood affiliates in Ohio”, DeWine’s statement said.

No sooner had OH become the ninth state to clear Planned Parenthood of charges it trafficked in fetal tissue had the state’s attorney general, Mike DeWine, found a new tack against the women’s health provider. She said fetal remains are “handled properly at Planned Parenthood”, but referred questions about what happens after that to the disposal company.

The federal lawsuit filed in Columbus follows an investigation by the state’s attorney general into the organization’s three facilities in OH that provide abortions.

Planned Parenthood facilities in Cincinnati, Columbus and the Cleveland area violated regulations by, the OH attorney general’s office found. The investigation did not uncover any instances of fetal tissue sold.

Planned Parenthood has said some fetal tissue is donated for medical research.

“Politicians in Ohio will stop at nothing to ban abortion in all cases in our state”, said Stephanie Knight, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio.

Ohio Administrative Code states “a fetus shall be disposed of in a humane manner”, but does not further define humane disposal and no penalties or violations are listed.

However, the investigation did discover that the disposal methods documented by the Planned Parenthood affiliates violate an OH law that was adopted in 1975, which requires that a “fetus shall be disposed of in a humane manner”.

The Charitable Law Section requested financial documents and records from the specific Planned Parenthood clinics as well as companies they contracted.

When asked where Planned Parenthood thought the aborted baby parts ended up, if not in landfills, Kight responded, “The Ohio attorney general hasn’t said that any law has been broken”. She said today the tissue is processed and sent to a solid waste facility that’s specifically licensed for medical material, not a typical landfill.

Planned Parenthood handles medical tissue like any other quality health care provider.

The issue will now be addressed by the Ohio Board of Public Health. Department Director Rick Hodges said his office is working with the attorney general “to pursue appropriate legal action including seeking a court order to restrict Planned Parenthood activities where violations of law have occurred”.

“This sudden and targeted treatment is no doubt motivated by his animus to a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion and to Planned Parenthood in particular”, Planned Parenthood says in the lawsuit.

This is a reference to Fiorina’s repeated use of the phrase “baby parts” – which many would consider a willful mischaracterization of what fetal tissue even is – and reports that the shooter himself made comments about “baby parts” to the police when he was arrested, and that he said in court he was a “warrior for the babies”.