THE PROBLEM OF TREATING ABORTED BABIES AS TRASH

Abortion is outlawed in the state of Texas, but that does not mean the abortion industry is not still profiting off of pregnant Texas mothers seeking an abortion. Abortion is outlawed in the state of Texas, but that does not mean the abortion industry is not still working with companies inside the State of Texas that are assisting abortion facilities in their day-to-day operations.

BioCycle Healthcare Waste Management Services, located at 8751 East Amarillo Boulevard in Amarillo, Texas, is one such company. Amarillo’s BioCycle facility is a Type V Registration solid waste facility operated by Oncore Technology, LLC, a company based in Grand Prairie, Texas. Oncore Healthcare Solutions, LLC, has done business as both Oncore Technology, LLC, and BioCycle, Inc., and has a history of serving as a medical waste transportation and disposal service for abortion facilities in abortion-access states like New Mexico, Kansas, and California for years, with no sign they will be stopping anytime soon. 

While the State of Texas addresses the disposal of remains of unborn children from medical facilities within the State of Texas in §697.004 of the Health and Safety Code, the law does not address: (1) the transportation of the remains of unborn children who have been killed by an elective abortion from an abortion provider in another state, and (2) the disposal of the remains of an unborn child killed by an elective abortion outside the State of Texas at a waste management facility inside the State of Texas.

Aborted babies are not trash and should not be treated as such by Texas waste management companies operating within the State of Texas. 

In March 2021, Tara Shaver, a sidewalk counselor with Abortion Free New Mexico, observed an unmarked vehicle with Texas plates regularly collecting shipments from a Planned Parenthood in Albuquerque, which at the time provided abortion pills up to 11 weeks and in-clinic abortions up to 19 weeks and 6 days. Shaver documented large red shipping containers being loaded and notified the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED), highlighting state regulations that require commercial haulers of infectious waste to display their company name and environment department registration number on vehicles. 

These violations prompted NMED to investigate. Daniel R. Galasso, the Solid Waste Bureau (SWB) Enforcement Officer, met with Amy Dickson, Chief Operating Officer of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. She supplied the SWB with 17 special waste manifests, showing the company Oncore Technology, LLC, received and hauled what was deemed as “infectious waste” from the abortion facility for a brief period of time. Oncore, located in Grand Prairie, Texas, was found to be an unregistered commercial hauler.

Thomas Simmons, the Operations Manager of Oncore Technology, told Galasso in August of 2021 that Oncore Health Solutions and BioCycle operated in conjunction for hauling purposes on behalf of Oncore Technology, LLC. SWB records indicated that Oncore Health Solutions was the transporter that arrived at the New Mexico clinic; however, it was also not a registered commercial hauler. These manifests used the registration number for a registered commercial hauler, BioCycle, Inc., located in Amarillo, Texas. As a result of the violations, the New Mexico Environment Department fined Oncore Technology $300, which was less than the price of the abortion pill regimen administered by Planned Parenthood in Albuquerque during the time of this investigation.

On Saturday, February 24th, 2024, an employee who was leaving BioCycle Healthcare Waste Management Services in Amarillo, Texas, stopped to answer some questions from a couple of curious bystanders outside of the facility’s gated entrance. One of those bystanders was Mark Lee Dickson, a director with Right to Life Across Texas and the founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn Initiative. Dickson asked the employee if the company ever picked up from Planned Parenthood. The employee shared with Dickson that he was picking up from a Planned Parenthood in Wichita, Kansas, over six hours away. When asked if he picked up from any abortion facilities outside of Wichita, Kansas, the employee answered, “That’s the only one that I know about off the top of my head because it’s the one that I do because I’m just a driver here. So there’s probably more, but I just don’t know off the top of my head.” When asked how often his company picked up from the Wichita abortion facility, the driver responded, “Every month. Once a month.” Upon being asked if the Amarillo facility was disposal or storage, the driver answered, “It’s both. We store it, and then we dispose of it as well.” 

Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, said, “I find it utterly demonic that a waste management company in Amarillo, Texas, would be doing business with an abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas.” Newman, who lives in Wichita, Kansas, continued, “There are two things that Texas can do to help us in our battle against the abortion industry in Kansas. One, they need to do everything they can to prevent their residents from coming to our state to murder their children. The parking lots of our abortion clinics are full of cars and trucks with Texas license plates. Texans coming to Kansas is what is keeping the abortion industry alive in our state. Two, as long as waste management companies in Texas are doing business with the Kansas abortion industry, the baby-murdering cartels will always have a place to get rid of the aftermath of their devilish deeds.”

On July 24, 2015, Melaney A. Linton, who was the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Inc., located in Houston, Texas, responded to a letter dated a little over a week prior from the State of Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals Office of the Secretary in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The letter was sent in regard to the process by which aborted children were disposed of in the State of Texas, and if any of the unborn children’s remains were donated or sold to other entities. 

Speaking of their disposal process, Linton wrote, “Under Texas law, products of spontaneous or induced human abortions, regardless of the period of gestation, fall under the definition of ‘Pathological Waste.’ Pathological Waste is included in the definition of ‘Special Waste from Health Care-Related Facilities,’ which requires certain treatment and disposition under the Texas Administrative Code. PPCFC [Planned Parenthood Center for Choice – an affiliate of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Inc.] disposes of Pathological Waste through an entity that is licensed for disposal of Special Waste from Health Care-Related Facilities.” Linton continued, “In Texas, immediately following an abortion or miscarriage management, the products of conception (‘POC’) are evaluated for completeness and gross abnormalities to ensure patient health and safety. If there are no concerns, it is securely stored until it is picked up by the licensed entity, which then disposes of it…”

When asked if any “Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast facilities, or any affiliates, subsidiaries or associates thereof, contract with companies that assist Planned Parenthood with disposing of, donating, or selling of unborn baby organs or body parts?” Linton responded, “PPCFC contracts with a company to dispose of its Special Waste from Health Care-Related Facilities, which includes Pathological Waste from PPCFC… PPCFC contracts with Oncore Technology, LLC for the disposal of Special Waste from Health Care-Related Facilities, including Pathological Waste. Oncore’s address is 2613 Skyway Dr., Grand Prairie, TX 75052. PPCFC does not contract with anyone for the donation or sale of fetal tissue.”

As a result of how Planned Parenthood and others were treating the remains of unborn children as “pathological waste,” the Texas legislature passed a fetal burial bill known as Senate Bill 8 (2017). That bill clarified that “Embryonic and fetal tissue remains are not pathological waste under state law” and required health care facilities within the State of Texas that provide “health or medical care to a pregnant woman” to “dispose of embryonic and fetal tissue remains that are passed or delivered at the facility by: (1) interment; (2) cremation; (3) incineration followed by interment; or (4) steam disinfection followed by interment.” The law was clear to say, “The ashes resulting from the cremation or incineration of embryonic and fetal tissue remains: (1) may be interred or scattered in any manner as authorized by law for human remains; and (2) may not be placed in a landfill.”

Currently, there is no state law prohibiting the hauling of fetal remains into Texas and disposing of those remains obtained outside the State of Texas within the State of Texas. “In 2017, Texas passed a fetal burial law,” said Mark Lee Dickson. “Unfortunately, that law has a massive loophole. While state law addresses the disposal of remains of unborn children from medical facilities within the state of Texas in §697.004 of the Health and Safety Code, state law does not address: (1) the transportation of the remains of unborn children who have been killed by an elective abortion from an abortion provider in another state, and (2) the disposal of the remains of an unborn child killed by an elective abortion outside the State of Texas at a waste management facility inside the State of Texas.” 

Dickson concluded, “BioCycle / Oncore Technology / Oncore Health Solutions have a history of working with baby-murdering cartels across our nation, and nothing in the laws of Texas stops them from continuing to have that history of ‘cleaning up’ for the baby murdering industry. In one report, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Inc. in California reported giving Oncore Technology, LLC $166,255 for medical services. Organizations like Oncore Technology must stop assisting the baby killers in this work.”

While there is no state law prohibiting the hauling of fetal remains into Texas and disposing of those remains obtained outside the State of Texas within the State of Texas, there are local ordinances which do just that. The Lubbock County Sanctuary County for the Unborn Ordinance is one such ordinance. The ordinance reads, "E.  DISPOSAL OF THE REMAINS OF AN UNBORN CHILD WITHIN THE UNINCORPORATED AREA OF  LUBBOCK COUNTY, TEXAS (a) It shall be unlawful for any person to transport the remains of an unborn child who was killed by an elective abortion from any abortion provider into the unincorporated area of Lubbock County, or to dispose of such remains in the unincorporated area of Lubbock County. (b) Under no circumstance may the mother of the unborn child that has been aborted, or the pregnant woman who seeks to abort her unborn child, be subject to prosecution or penalty or civil liability under this section." Those who violate such a law are subject to lawsuits for each individual violation.