'Pieces of children'

Abby Johnson remembers what former colleagues at Planned Parenthood called the storage freezer for the dismembered remains of aborted babies at a Texas affiliate where she worked: “The freezer was jokingly called ‘the nursery.’ … That was where all the babies were held.”

She also remembers the alternate name some Planned Parenthood workers used for the so-called “products of conception,” abbreviated “POC”: “The joke was that it stood for ‘pieces of children.’”

Johnson left Planned Parenthood and became a pro-life advocate in 2009 after witnessing the abortion of a 13-week-old unborn child. She recounted the disturbing practices of her former employer during a Texas Senate hearing on July 29.

Johnson’s testimony in Texas came five days before Democratic senators in the U.S. Senate blocked an effort to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The move came in the wake of a growing scandal over how the nation’s largest abortion provider harvests fetal tissue for middleman companies supplying biotech researchers.

Undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) show Planned Parenthood staffers picking through the remains of unborn children and haggling over fees for their body parts and tissue. Planned Parenthood maintains it only recoups its costs for supplying the parts, a claim CMP disputes with its video conversations.

Republicans vowed to continue the battle to defund Planned Parenthood this fall, suggesting they might block any spending bills that include federal funding for the abortion provider.

For now, other distressing questions arise: What happens to the remains of unborn children once they reach a lab?

In at least one facility, researchers have transplanted fetal organs into lab rats, with the goal of learning how to grow the organs large enough to transplant into ailing adults in need of donations.

In January, researchers at Ganogen Inc., a biotech company in Redwood City, Calif., announced they had transplanted “55 fully intact human fetal kidneys” into lab rats. The company procured the organs of aborted children from StemExpress, a company that obtains baby parts from Planned Parenthood.

Animal research with fetal tissue isn’t a recent development, but Ganogen Inc. says its technique is new. That means the possibility of harvesting kidneys from unborn children discarded through abortion—with the goal of transplanting the same kidneys into ailing adults wanting to live—adds another grisly layer to a deeply disturbing story.

The company’s tag line: “Ending the donor shortage.”

Cate Dyer, founder of StemExpress, told The New York Times fetal tissue accounts for about 10 percent of the company’s business. Inc. magazine reported the company’s revenue at $2.2 million—about 1,300 percent growth in three years.

To the Times, Dyer described the remains of unborn babies as “biohazardous waste, discarded waste” and spoke of collecting “tissues from those waste products.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton testified about those so-called “waste products” before the Texas Senate committee in July, and noted Planned Parenthood also contracts with companies to collect and burn the remains of unborn children:

“As my staffers watched, a technician took an aborted child from a jar, rinsed it in a colander, and placed the body parts in a tray. Fingers and toes, exceptionally tiny but fully formed, were clearly visible. The remains were eventually deposited in a red plastic bag, about the size of an average grocery sack.”

Paxton testified his office would continue to investigate the practices of Planned Parenthood in Texas: “But more than any misdeeds involving the sale of aborted baby parts is this fundamental truth: The true abomination in all this is the institution of abortion.”