Planned Parenthood denies DeWine's report on fetal remains disposal
Anne Saker,
asaker@enquirer.com 6:18 p.m. EST
December 11, 2015
The state will go to court next week to prevent Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati, Columbus and a Cleveland suburb from disposing of aborted fetuses with medical-waste companies that “cooked” them in an autoclave and dumped them in a landfill.
Attorney General Mike DeWine announced Friday that a four-month investigation of the three Planned Parenthood facilities determined they were not selling fetal tissue. The investigation by the state’s Charitable Law Section was launched after video on the Internet this summer apparently showed Planned Parenthood officials in other states discussing how fetuses are aborted so the tissue could be sold. Investigations of Planned Parenthood in 11 states have not turned up evidence of such sales.
But in Ohio, DeWine’s team did find that aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio in Mount Auburn and the Columbus clinic contracted with a Marietta company to dispose of the fetal tissue.
At a news conference Friday in Columbus, DeWine said the company, Accu Medical Waste Services Inc., put the bodies in an autoclave, which heats the tissue with steam to kill bacteria. The remains then were dumped in a Kentucky landfill, although DeWine did not say where.
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Bedford Heights, southeast of Cleveland, contracted with a Lake Forest, Ill., company named Stericycle to remove its medical waste. But DeWine said the contract specifically prohibited removal of aborted fetuses, and DeWine said it was not known what happened to those fetal remains.
People who answered the telephones at the two companies declined to comment Friday on DeWine’s findings.
It’s not clear that the Planned Parenthood clinics did anything wrong according to Ohio law. DeWine said no criminal or civil penalties exist. The only rule at issue is
Ohio Administrative Code 3701-47-05, put in place in 1975. The language covers abortion in Ohio and simply says, “A fetus shall be disposed of in a humane manner,” without defining it. No penalties for violations are listed.
But DeWine said he believes the use of an autoclave and the dispatch to landfills do not qualify under the code.
“First steam-cooking fetuses and then disposing of them in a landfill is not humane,” DeWine said. “It will come as a shock to Ohioans to find out that fetuses are being cooked and then they’re being put in a landfill, and they’re going to be mixed in with the garbage and whatever else goes into a landfill.”
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Kellie Copeland, Ohio executive director of the choice group NARAL, wondered why DeWine did not look into the administrative code language about disposal before. “The Ohio Department of Health reviews protocols for biological tissue disposal during the annual licensing inspection, to ensure that they comply with all Ohio Revised Codes and Administrative Codes regulating this disposal. It is irresponsible for the state’s highest law enforcement agency to be making these allegations without consulting with the state agency charged with regulating these centers.
Planned Parenthood denies DeWine's report on fetal remains disposal