Ohio Planned Parenthood Clinics Put Aborted Fetuses In Landfills: Attorney General

Planned Parenthood clinics in Ohio disposed of aborted fetuses in landfills, the state’s attorney general said Friday, a practice that is in violation of state law.

But the non-profit said in a statement to Patch that the findings are “simply not true,” calling them “inflammatory and false” and touting the state’s history of doing “everything possible to eliminate access to abortion in Ohio.”

The announcement comes as the women’s healthcare provider has been a major talking point during the presidential primary debates after claims during the summer that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue for profit.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, a shooter in Colorado killed three, including a police officer, at a Planned Parenthood clinic and wounded nine more. He admitted to his crimes in court this week, saying he is a “warrior for the babies.”

SEE ALSO:

• Group Claims Planned Parenthood Sells Fetal Tissue
• White House: No Plans To Defund Planned Parenthood
• Colorado Planned Parenthood Shooting; 3 Dead; Suspect in Custody
• Planned Parenthood Official Says Gunman Opposed to Abortion
• Planned Parenthood Shooter: ‘Warrior For The Babies’: Reports

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office launched an investigation into his state’s clinics in the wake of the tissue-selling allegations, which so far haven’t been validated outside of the initial, heavily edited videos.

But state investigators found other violations in the process, they say.

“While the investigation did not find any indication that fetal tissue was sold by Planned Parenthood affiliates in Ohio, the investigation did reveal that that aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood facilities are ultimately disposed of in landfill sites,” a news release from the attorney general’s office said.

The release said that disposing of fetuses in landfills violates a state law about abortion clinics that says, “The fetus shall be disposed of in a humane manner.”

Three Planned Parenthood affiliates in the state “sent fetal remains to companies which disposed of the fetuses in landfills,” according to the attorney general’s office.

The statement does not mention any specific disposal companies or give any details about the landfills or how the fetuses were disposed of.

The aborted fetuses were “apparently intermingled with other common residential and commercial trash,” DeWine, a Republican, said in a letter to Ohio Department of Health Director Richard Hodges.

The Planned Parenthood facility in Bedford Heights told the AG’s office that it only uses one company for disposal, but the company told investigators that it does not accept fetal parts or remains, according to the release.

But it, again, did not name the specific company.

“Disposing of aborted fetuses from an abortion by sending them to a landfill is callous and completely inhumane,” DeWine said in the release. “It is important the public be aware that these practices are taking place at these Ohio facilities.”

Planned Parenthood maintains that it has done nothing against the law, going so far as to call the investigation’s findings “complete lies.”

“Our agreements with vendors all require them to follow state law, and dispose of tissue accordingly,” Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio President and CEO Stephanie Kight said in a statement. “If they are not, then I will take swift action.”

The company also attacked the state’s current administration’s “increasingly severe restrictions on abortion.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is also running for the Republican presidential nomination, “has signed 17 anti-women’s health measures,” the statement said.

“Of the 28 Planned Parenthood health centers in Ohio, 26 of them are in rural or medically underserved areas, meaning that without Planned Parenthood, many patients would literally have nowhere else to turn for essential, preventive reproductive health care,” the statement said.