Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said his office found no indication that Planned Parenthood affiliates in Ohio are selling fetal tissue, but the investigation did reveal that aborted fetuses were disposed in landfills.
DeWine said he has referred his findings to the Ohio Department of Health for further action.
Planned Parenthood Ohio President and Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Kight denied DeWine’s charges.
“This is not true,” Kight said in a prepared statement. “Planned Parenthood contracts with vendors to handle fetal tissue in a respectful manner and in according with the law. It is irresponsible for the attorney general to say otherwise.”
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said his organization is “disturbed and heartsick over the attorney general’s findings,” according to media reports.
Gonidakis said the group is working with three Republican lawmakers – state Reps. Kyle Koehler of Springfield and Robert McColley of Napoleon, and Sen. Joe Uecker of Miami Twp. – to make improper disposal a first-degree misdemeanor, add more oversight for humane burial an cremation and require providers to inform women seeking an abortion about disposal of the fetus remains.
The AG’s investigation focused on three facilities: Bedford Heights, Cincinnati and Columbus. DeWine launched the investigation to determine whether the facilities were selling fetal tissue, or abortion trafficking, in violation of Ohio law.
While the investigation did not find that fetal tissue was sold by any of the Planned Parenthood affiliates, the disposal methods used violate Ohio Administrative Code 3701-47-05, adopted in 1975, which requires that a “fetus shall be disposed of in a humane manner,” DeWine said.
According to his findings, all three affiliates sent fetal remains to companies which disposed of the fetuses in landfills.
“Disposing of aborted fetuses from an abortion by sending them to a landfill is callous and completely inhumane,” DeWine said. “It is important the public be aware that these practices are taking place at these Ohio facilities.”
