Weeks after the Center for Medical Progress released its edited sting operation videos featuring Dr. Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood, House Democrats are calling for an investigation into CMP – a logical step in the debacle.
Currently, Planned Parenthood is under close scrutiny by House Republicans who want to shut the organization down by stripping it of funding. CMP believes Planned Parenthood is profiting from donated fetal tissue and wants to end the organization for good. If the Senate votes in favor of the highway bill, health care to more than three million men and women will no longer be available. This means the 700 Planned Parenthoods will be unable to carry out their mission to “prevent unintended pregnancies through contraception, reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections through testing and treatment, and screen for cervical and other cancers.”
This could be devastating to the millions who cannot afford regular health care – opting for Planned Parenthood because of its reliable and cost-effective services.
House Republicans have come up short in their investigations, yet House Democrats may have uncovered some vital information regarding CMP. According to The Huffington Post, this supposed non-profit may have deceived the IRS by pretending to be a biomedicine charity.
Though it has since been changed, the original description of CMP summarized the non-profit’s mission to educate the public in medical advances. Also on the website is a donate button for the public to help the operation run. A non-profit you say? Currently, the description reads, “The Center for Medical Progress is a group of citizen journalists dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances,” and “We envision a world in which medical practice and biotechnology ally with and serve the goods of human nature and do not destroy, disfigure, or work against them.
It seems fishy the CMP would change their website’s description, and the secrecy doesn’t stop here. The organization may be a front for the anti-abortion group Live Action, considering the leader, David Daleiden, is a former Live Action employee. On top of it all, it appears the CMP has neglected to file its 990 tax forms. All tax-exempt organizations are required to file these forms with the IRS. That being said, it’s unclear how many have donated to CMP and whether or not the group has received outside funding.
Eric Ferrero, vice president of Communications at Planned Parenthood, stated in an interview, “This group’s outrageous claims about Planned Parenthood are flat-out lies, so it should be no surprise that they also lied and may have broken multiple laws in order to pull off this smear campaign. This is the latest in an eight-year-long string of false attacks and heavily edited videos that are all part of a political agenda to ban abortion completely and defund Planned Parenthood — an agenda that the public overwhelmingly opposes.”
Now that House Democrats and House Republicans are both conducting investigations, we can only hope the truth be uncovered in the near future.
Original article via Huffington Post.
Photo via VOX.
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Why Planned Parenthood Is Hipper Than Ever
Planned Parenthood Through The Years…
House Democrats Introduce Bill Requiring Medicaid To Cover Abortion
