Planned Parenthood is mounting a PR defense as it reels from a controversial undercover video that its critics say shows the healthcare organization sells the organs and tissues of aborted fetuses.
The video, which shows PP's senior director of medical services discussing over lunch a tissue donation program with activists posing as employees of a human biologics company, was released, along with an edited version, by the Center for Medical Progress and has garnered hundreds of thousands of views online. Conservative media are heavily promoting the story.
CMP is a unit of the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
Eric Ferrero, VP of communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the organization accommodates patients who "want" to donate tissue for scientific research. "There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood," he said, adding that costs like transportation are sometimes reimbursed.
Camino PR, the firm of former PP Federation of America VP of communications Elizabeth Toledo, is helping the women's healthcare group manage the crisis.
Ferrero blasted the video publishers, the Center for Medical Progress, as a "well-funded group established for the purpose of damaging [PP's] mission and services." He said the video was heavily edited and falsely portrays the group's participation in tissue donation programs.
The CMP said PP's response shows the organization harvests fetal parts and exchanges them for money.
Husch Blackwell Strategies has added FleishmanHillard alum Michael Slatin as a principal in its public affairs group.
Rory Cooper, a veteran Republican operative and policy specialist, has joined Teneo’s Washington office as senior managing director in its strategy & communications practice.
Brian Fallon, who served as national press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, is signing on next month as Vice President’s Kamala Harris’ campaign communications director.
TikTok is nothing more than a Chinese propaganda tool that poses “a grave threat to America’s national security and, in particular, impressionable children and young adults,” say two Congressmen who want the platform registered as a foreign agent.
Public Strategies Washington has added Abbie Sorrendino, a former aide to now Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
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