Planned Parenthood denies DeWine's report on fetal remains disposal

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.”

Planned Parenthood called DeWine’s conclusions “flat-out false.” Stephanie Kight, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, said the organization “handles medical tissue like any other quality health care provider. Our agreements with vendors all require them to follow state law and dispose of tissue accordingly. If they are not, then I will take swift action.”

“This is an administration that has done everything possible to eliminate access to abortion in Ohio,” Kight said. “We are seriously concerned that this report is not the result of meaningful investigation but instead yet another attack on women’s access to health care in the state of Ohio intended to end our ability to continue to provide safe, legal abortion.”

But DeWine said his investigation didn’t compare Planned Parenthood’s disposal of fetal tissue with the disposal of fetal remains at hospitals, such as after a dilation and curettage following a miscarriage. Still, he said, Ohio regulations differ for how abortion clinics and hospitals must handle fetal tissue.

DeWine said he consulted Friday with Rick Hodges, director of the Ohio Department of Health. The two agencies were working on a request, to be filed next week, for a court injunction to “to restrict Planned Parenthood activities where violations of law have occurred,” Hodges said in a statement.

DeWine said he also consulted Friday with the leadership of the legislature to address the language in the code. Republican State Sen. Joe Uecker of Miami Township, calling himself “deeply disturbed” by DeWine’s findings, said he will introduce legislation soon “to ensure the dignity of these papers whose lives ended toon soon at the hands of Planned Parenthood abortionists.”

Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said he will look into “next steps at the federal level to ban this practice.”

Gov. John Kasich, a Republican presidential candidate, said the Planned Parenthood conclusion “shows the need for further work with the Ohio General Assembly to reign in Planned Parenthood while continuing to ensure access to vital health care services for women.”

Paula Westwood, executive director of Right of Life of Greater Cincinnati, said DeWine’s report “will add further trauma to women who have experienced abortion and is an especially sad revelation at Christmas.”

Advocates of Planned Parenthood called DeWine’s investigation harassment. Democratic state Rep. Kathleen Clyde of Kent said, “The attempt to paint the women's healthcare provider as a lawbreaker is sad and deeply troubling. Governor Kasich's equally weak call for his Health Department to take legal action is dangerous and puts women in harm's way.”

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.