Five Things to Know About the Battle Over Planned Parenthood's Alleged Sale of Aborted Fetal Tissue

WASHINGTON (TheBlaze/AP) -- Four undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood staffers allegedly discussing the sale of fetal body parts have set off a firestorm, with Republican lawmakers responding with a highly publicized attempt to defund the health care organization.

While Republicans will likely lose Monday's Senate showdown over halting federal aid to Planned Parenthood, the debate over abortion is continuing to ramp up, as the undercover footage has sparked sweeping responses across the nation.

At the heart of the issue is the fact that the unsettling videos have focused attention on the group's little-noticed practice of providing fetal tissue to researchers, as foes and supporters, alike, battle over whether Planned Parenthood is donating or selling these organs and tissues.

Conservatives have long targeted Planned Parenthood, which provides health services, family planning and abortions in clinics across the country. The secretly recorded videos, with hair-raising close-ups of aborted fetal organs and Planned Parenthood officials dispassionately describing how "I'm not going to crush that part," have forced the group and its Democratic champions into a defensive crouch.

Watch the fourth video in the series below (caution: graphic):

Here are five things to know as the battle over Planned Parenthood forges on:

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THE BATTLEGROUND

Citing statements in the videos by Planned Parenthood officials, opponents including the Center for Medical Progress, which recorded the videos, accuse the group of profiting from selling fetal organs. That would violate a federal criminal statute that lets providers recover only their expenses. They also say Planned Parenthood is altering abortion procedures to better recover usable tissue.

Art Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University in New York, New York, recently told CNN that he also had concerns with a doctor in one of the videos who mentioned ultrasound guidance being used to help a clinic know where to grab the unborn baby with forceps, saying that any efforts to change an abortion procedure simply to procure tissue are problematic.

“In abortion the primary goal is to give the safest abortion possible. Your sole concern has to be the mother and her health,” he said, comparing it to the example of doctors hypothetically changing the treatment of a patient in an effort to secure certain tissues after death for donation purposes. “That’s a huge conflict of interest. … If you modify how someone dies, that’s unethical.”

Conservatives view the videos as a huge political opportunity to galvanize support for banning abortions and, some hope, prohibiting fetal tissue research. But the issue is cutting both ways, with both sides using it for fundraising solicitations.

Planned Parenthood has apologized for the "tone" of comments in one of the videos, but says it has broken no laws. It accuses opponents of using selectively edited videos for their latest assault on abortion and women's health choices.

The group also says it is among many organizations assisting fetal tissue research, a decades-old field scientists use to study Alzheimer's and other diseases.

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WHAT PLANNED PARENTHOOD DOES

There are roughly 1 million U.S. abortions yearly. In its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it performed 328,000 of them.

Planned Parenthood and its supporters have sought to shift the focus, saying abortions represent just 3 percent of the 10.9 million services the organization provides annually in nearly 700 clinics.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

The group says its yearly workload includes 4.5 million tests and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases; 3.6 million contraception procedures and devices; 1.1 million pregnancy tests and 900,000 cancer tests and treatments.

Of Planned Parenthood's 2.7 million annual clients, mostly women, it says 4 in 5 earn 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less. Democrats say an attack on Planned Parenthood is an effort to keep women, many of them poor, from needed health services.

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THE SENATE BILL

Monday's vote is on barring federal aid to Planned Parenthood and shifting the money to other health care providers.

That's big money for Planned Parenthood. It says of $1.3 billion in revenue last year, $528 million came from taxpayers, including state funds that help finance Medicaid.

Planned Parenthood defenders say cutting federal aid wouldn't affect the abortions it provides because federal money cannot be used for abortions except for cases of rape, incest or when a woman's life is in peril. Opponents say squeezing money from Planned Parenthood makes it choose between spending its remaining funds on abortions or other services.

Republicans say if Congress denied federal aid to Planned Parenthood, other providers could cover the group's displaced clients. They say the nearly 9,100 federally funded community health centers, more than 10 times the number of Planned Parenthood locations, could pick up the slack.

Planned Parenthood disagrees, saying their sites serve disproportionate numbers of low-income women and are often where no other alternatives exist.

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A TRICKY ISSUE

Abortion's battle lines are clear for some politicians but dicey for many.

The GOP has bumbled the issue recently, including Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin's 2012 comment on "legitimate rape" that probably sealed his defeat. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is sponsor of the Senate bill, a female face Republicans hope will blunt repeated Democratic accusations that the GOP is waging war on women.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

Many Democrats have distanced themselves from the video's remarks. Many are choosing their words like Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who says of Republicans, "They're attacking women's health."

Underscoring the sensitivity, some moderates will likely cross party lines Monday. Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are among several saying little about how they will vote.

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THE NEXT FIGHT

Some Republicans say they won't vote for spending bills keeping the government open starting Oct. 1 with any Planned Parenthood funds.

Many conservatives are itching for that fight. "Show me a Democrat who'll force a shutdown over selling baby parts," said Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who says dozens of GOP lawmakers will join him in opposing bills with Planned Parenthood money.

But GOP leaders are reluctant to force a shutdown fight that could haunt them in the 2016 elections, as are some presidential candidates.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican seeking the GOP nomination, said: "I support any legislation that will defund Planned Parenthood. But I don't think you start out with your objective to shut down government."

Paul, speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," added, "I mean, if President Obama wants to shut down government because he doesn't get funds for Planned Parenthood, that would be President Obama's determination to shut down government."

Democrats are likely to block such bills in the Senate and President Barack Obama is nearly certain to veto any reaching him. So some Republicans want to see whether congressional investigations of Planned Parenthood produce evidence that forces Democrats to concede.

"The more Americans learn about Planned Parenthood's horrific practices, the easier it will be for Congress to defund them," said Emily Schillinger, spokeswoman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

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So far, the Center for Medical Progress has released four videos, with eight additional clips slated for release in the coming weeks. Read more about the Planned Parenthood debate here.