Sales ban on fetal tissue in North Carolina OK’d by panel

By GARY D. ROBERTSON

Associated Press

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — A state Senate committee has cleared legislation filed in response to recent undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue for research.

The panel voted Wednesday for a measure to prohibit the sale of the remains of aborted fetuses.

State health regulations direct how facilities permitted to terminate pregnancies and medical and research labs must dispose of those remains by burial, cremation or incineration. But state law doesn’t specifically ban the sale of these remains. The bill would make such activity a low-grade felony.

Sen. Chad Barefoot of Wake County says the legislation would bring “some level of dignity to unborn children” who were aborted.

The North Carolina Planned Parenthood affiliate calls the bill another “political attack on safe and legal abortion” in the state.

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