Republican House Leaders Cancel Breast Cancer Research Bill amid Abortion Organ Sale Viral Video
Kwao Peppeh | | Jul 15, 2015 11:51 AM EDT |
(Photo : Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Breast Cancer Research Foundation) The U.S. House of Representatives has voted down a proposed bill to support cancer research and awareness due to a controversy involving one of the organizations set to benefit from the fund.
Republican House leaders on Tuesday canceled a bill that would have seen the government minting thousands of pink plated gold coins to raise funds for breast cancer awareness. Conservatives expressed concerns that monies raised would be used to fund an abortion rights organization embroiled in controversy after a video of one of its top officials discussing the sale of body parts harvested from aborted fetuses went viral.
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The Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act, a largely bipartisan legislation, would have authorized the Treasury Department to mint thousands of coins that would have raised about $8 million. Proceeds from the coins sale were to be used to promote and fund breast cancer research. The proceeds were set to be divided equally between Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
GOP leaders canceled the bill from their voting schedule moments before it was considered after several conservative anti-abortion groups expressed concerns that proceeds from the sale of the commemorative coins would fund the Komen foundation, which in turn funds Planned Parenthood.
According to CBS News, the Center for Medical Progress, a group opposed to abortion, released a now viral video of Dr. Deborah Nucatola, a Planned Parenthood's Senior Director for Medical Services, discussing different abortion procedures that makes body parts and organs eligible for sale.
"A lot of people want intact hearts these days, because they're looking for specific nodes," Nucatola said. "Yesterday was the first time she said people wanted lungs...Some people want lower extremities too, which, that's simple. I mean that's easy."
"We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I'm not gonna crush that part," Nucatola said. "I'm gonna basically crush below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact."
The Heritage Action for American also objected the bill because of Komen's funding ties to Planned Parenthood.
"Komen has had a close connection with Planned Parenthood for a number of years and some folks hadn't realized that," Kansas GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamo told CNN.
Rep. Martha Roby (R-Ala.) described the video as "simply horrifying" during her heated speech at the House floor on Tuesday.
"This is one of those moments as a nation that we have to ask ourselves, Who are we? Are we really going to tolerate this inhumanity? Are we going to look the other way while babies are brutally killed and organs are harvested for profit?"
"These aren't specimens, thy are babies, for goodness sake," Roby added.
Meanwhile, Eric Ferrero, the vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the video was "heavily edited " and secretly recorded.
"The promotional video mischaracterizing Planned Parenthood's mission and services is made by a long time anti-abortion activist that has used deceptive and unethical video editing, and that has created a fake medical website as well as a fake human tissue website that purports to provide services to stem cell researchers," the statement read.
"At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does-- with full appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards," Ferrero explained.
However, the Center for Medical Progress published a two hour and forty minute raw version of the video in order to quell accusations that they edited the footage.
Newsweek reported that the Center for Medical Progress has come under fire because the group is headed by David Daleiden, a man with ties to James O'Keefe, a controversial figure popular for publishing misleading videos, which have been carefully edited.
The Republican House leaders have decided to revise the bill and divert funds to another organization supporting breast cancer research.
"We are working to ensure that charitable organizations which receive funding from this legislation are 100% focused on diagnosing, treating and curing breast cancer," senior House GOP leadership said to CNN.
TagsBreast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act, Breast Cancer Research Bill, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Planned Parenthood, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Center for Medical Progress, GOP, Breast Cancer Research and Support Fund
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