Gordon Campbell on Carly Fiorina and the anti-abortion scam 18 Sep 2015
Gordon Campbell
Related articles
So Carly Fiorina – hitherto best known as the CEO who drove Hewlett-Packard to the brink of ruin - was the big winner in the second Republican candidates debate yesterday. One of her big debate moments – played unedited and without comment on RNZ this morning – came when she urged listeners to view a video that allegedly shows the Planned Parenthood organization discussing how to profit from the organ harvesting of aborted fetuses.
The video that Fiorina was endorsing in prime time is actually a hoax, not a genuine expose of some nefarious Abortion Industrial Complex. You can find a rebuttal here. The Salon article has useful links to other exposés of the hoax here as well. This debunking article by Media Matters is also useful.
Basically, the heavily edited video purports to show Planned Parenthood’s Dr Deborah Nucatola engaged in a discussion of organ harvesting for profit. In fact, she is talking about the perfectly legal, non profit, and routine practice of organ donation by consent for medical research, and the re-imbursement for preparing and transporting the stem tissue involved. Here’s the press statement by Planned Parenthood:
“In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, such as treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different. 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. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood. In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.
“A well funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research. Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.”
This site also has useful information on the legal constraints on the sale of fetal tissue, as well as a discussion of some of the grey areas – which are mainly to do with the validation of the transportation costs involved :
Much of the controversy stems from a lack of widespread public knowledge of who buys and sells fetal tissue, what it is used for, and what the law allows regarding its purchase and sale. Scientists have been using such material in medical research for decades to study (and possibly develop cures for) a number of diseases and medical ailments, but commercial fetal tissue transactions take place in something of a legal gray zone: agencies may sell fetal tissue that has been “donated” for that purpose (through abortion), but they may not profit from it. According to federal law they may only charge for the processing and shipping involved in transferring the material from donor to purchaser, but the law doesn’t regulate how much they may charge.
Give the paltry amounts that Nucotala is shown mentioning on the video – “$30 to $100 per specimen” it is clear she is talking only about the re-imbursement for the transportation costs, and not any level of profiteering from organ harvesting. Moreover, the brochure that features in the video that does purport in one line to promote a profit potential, is not a Planned Parenthood document – as the video claims - but is from Stem Express, a firm that processes and transports the stem tissue to medical researchers around the world.
OK… so the video is a fraudulent effort. Yet touting it was one of the main reasons the pundits are now saying that Fiorina’s debate performance was based on substance, not generalities or metaphors. Should we be surprised that Fiorina has peddled this anti-abortion scam in prime time – while projecting herself as the feisty pro-woman candidate? Not really. As the New York Times has reported, Fiorina has deliberately fudged and distorted her disastrous tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard as well.
Donald Trump, at least, managed to get the Hewlett-Packard flaw in her CV dead right.
Hop Along, Again
I’ve been banging on about Hop Along’s Painted Shut album for months now. Tracks like “Waitress” “Horseshoes Crabs” and the pulsating “Sister Cities” are all fine examples of Frances Quinlan’s ability to blend her old freak folk inclinations with her new Breeders-like ferocity. “Waitress” “Powerful Man” and “Texas Funeral” all illustrate one of Quinlan’s other gifts: namely, her ability to write detailed lyrics about very specific events, but which have general application.
On ‘Texas Funeral’ she’s urging a friend to bail with her from a poisonous small town and head off somewhere – California, where else? – solely in the expectation that things will be different, not better. The urgency with which she confronts him (Aren’t you sick of the word inheritance? Keep your melting stars!) and the martial beat behind her own attempts to re-assure herself ( None of this is ever gonna happen to me) is balanced by the tenderness of what they could share : “We have a great wanting in common….” Great song, and lyrics aside there’s an interestingly gnarled guitar solo in there, too.
News
Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students
29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more
New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process
7 Mar 2020 News
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more
Business
NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19
17 Mar 2020 Business News
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more
NZ Government announces aviation relief package
19 Mar 2020 Business News
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more
Living
Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London
6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall.
It was the first... more
Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate
12 Jan 2022 Arts
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...
New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more
Property
Fairer rules for tenants and landlords
17 Nov 2019 Property
17 NOVEMBER 2019
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more
New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax
17 Apr 2019 Property
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more
Migration
Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued
19 Nov 2019 Migration
19 NOVEMBER 2019
We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more
Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location
18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018
HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY
The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more
Travel
Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
more
Sport
The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners
27 Oct 2019 Cricket
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more
PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final
26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more
Columns
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
First published on Werewolf
The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more
Kiwi Success
Congratulations to Loder Cup winner
26 Sep 2018 People
25 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more
Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
HON JENNY SALESA
Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more
Recruitment
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
14 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
22 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more