Woman Reveals What Reportedly Happened After She Sought an Abortion at Planned Parenthood and Didn't Want to Sign a Fetal Tissue Donation Form

As debate continues over undercover Planned Parenthood videos that purport to show clinic workers discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts, some have also expressed ethical qualms over the notion that tissue donation might be used as a motivating factor to urge women who are on the fence about having an abortion to go through with the procedure.

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This is the precise issue that emerged this week in an interview between Live Action News, a pro-life group, and a woman named Nancy Tanner, a Virginia coordinator for Silent No More, an anti-abortion campaign.

Tanner recalled how she once had serious concerns about a tissue donation form she was asked to fill out while seeking an abortion years ago at a Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C. — an act that she said left her with intense regret.

"I was second-guessing my decision to have the abortion," Tanner told Live Action News. "And as I was filling out the paperwork, I saw a permission slip that dealt with the disposal of the 'products of conception.'"

A nurse reportedly told Tanner that donating fetal tissue was similar to being an organ donor, but that argument didn't convince Tanner, who said that she initially did not want to sign it.

"I said I didn’t want to sign it and they said I had to or I couldn’t have the abortion," she said. "I didn’t want my baby to be used for scientific research and I was told, 'Don’t worry, it’s not a baby.'"

Tanner continued, "I told her I had two daughters already and I knew what a baby was. She said, 'We don’t think its a baby.'"

In the end, Tanner ended up signing the form — an act that she now laments.

"[The nurse] said that I should give honor to what I thought was my ‘child' by signing the form," Tanner told Live Action News. "In my very confused state I listened to her say it was a ‘good’ thing to do, and I caved."

Despite signing the form, she said that she was hoping for a way out of the abortion.

"I was on the table, but wanted to leave and I was pushed back down. They said it was too late to change my mind," she said. "The cramping was horrible ... after the machine was finally turned off, the doctor took the jar and right in front of me, he dumped the contents onto a tray and started looking for the pieces."

Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Tanner also claims that the doctor yelled at her during the procedure.

"I can’t find all the parts. How pregnant were you?" he allegedly said, with Tanner adding, "He yelled at me! 'If you get an infection it’s not my fault.' Then he turned the machine back on and vacuumed some more. That was worse than the first time."

After the procedure, she said that she stopped at the front desk and asked for her tissue donation form so that she could rip it up, but was told that the clinic no longer had it.

Silent No More recently published other women's claims about Planned Parenthood in an effort to encourage Congress to defund the organization. Planned Parenthood officials have continued to defend the organization against what they dismiss as unfounded attacks by pro-life groups and individuals.

(H/T: Live Action News)

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