Fox News' Shannon Bream falsely suggested that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of fetal tissue, based on a misrepresented figure sourced from the website of a separate, for-profit middleman that occasionally interacts with some Planned Parenthood affiliates.

Following the release of the latest undercover video by the anti-abortion Center for Medical Process -- which again falsely accuses Planned Parenthood of illegally profiting from the sale of fetal tissue for medical research -- Bream reported on the July 28 edition of America's Newsroom that while Planned Parenthood “says it has never made a profit” on the legal tissue donations, “there are things that raise questions.”

As evidence, she pointed to the website of a company called StemExpress, which “does business with Planned Parenthood affiliates,” where “you will see pricing for a fetal liver, in some cases, at over $24,000 for a single item”:

BREAM: The undercover video show Planned Parenthood affiliated doctors quoting potential pricing at $30-$100 perspecimen. But you go online to the ordering system here for StemExpress, one of the companies that reportedly does business with Planned Parenthood affiliates. You will see pricing for a fetal liver, in some cases, at over $24,000 for a single item.

But The New York Times explained that while for-profit companies like StemExpress often act as middlemen between the non-profit Planned Parenthood and medical researchers, Planned Parenthood itself only receives “small fees” to cover expenses:

Those companies pay small fees, usually $100 or less a specimen, to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, who say they charge only what they need to cover their expenses. The companies then process the tissue and sell it to researchers for higher prices that reflect the processing.

 [...]

“These cells are hard to isolate,” Ms. Dyer said. “These are hard processes, expensive processes that take millions of dollars of equipment. Just to attempt to do some of these isolations can cost us thousands of dollars, and it may not even work.”

The figure cited by Bream -- "$24,000 for one item" -- is actually the cost to medical researchers, according to the StemExpress website, of “a vial containing five million frozen fetal liver CD133+ stem cells.” Planned Parenthood isn't paying, or receiving, that amount of money.

The Center for Medical Progress has previously released two other heavily and deceptively edited videos targeting Planned Parenthood. The group is affiliated with discredited and violent anti-abortion activists.