Taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood was the subject of a heated exchange between competing Democrat and Republican panelists on Univision’s Sunday Al Punto program.

The Week’s Paul Waldman agrees with conservatives that the undercover Planned Parenthood videos raise a profound moral issue, but disagrees sharply with them over what that issue is. In a Friday post, Waldman asserted that “this controversy simply has nothing to do with fetal tissue” and claimed that it’s really about the right’s disgust with women’s sexual “autonomy.”

“Republicans have always hated Planned Parenthood, not only because it provides abortions but because it's a forthright advocate on behalf of women's rights to control their own reproductive lives,” wrote Waldman. “Nothing is more horrifying to a certain kind of conservative than a woman who has sex because she wants to, and does so without being punished for her sin.”

The Associated Press devoted nearly 800 words Tuesday to promoting fetal tissue research in the midst of Planned Parenthood’s ongoing baby parts-for-profit scandal.  Its story, titled “Scientists say fetal tissue essential for medical research,” hyped the “potential” of using cells garnered from aborted babies to further medicine.

AP reporters Collin Binkley and Carla K. Johnson fretted that “Many major universities declined to make scientists available for interviews about their fetal tissue work, saying they fear for the researchers’ safety because the issue is so highly charged,” and listed a slew of treatments scientists are trying to develop using cells from tiny humans in their earliest stages of life.

What’s funnier than the illegal trafficking of aborted baby parts? To some comedians, it’s mocking the people shocked by it.

Will Ferrell’s comedy website, “Funny or Die” released a parody video, titled “The Shocking Truth about Planned Parenthood,” spoofing the Center for Medical Progress’ Planned Parenthood video series-- which revealed Planned Parenthood officials make profits off of selling aborted fetal tissues.

Planned Parenthood and its defenders have played up that the recent undercover videos were "highly-edited," and that producers are "not journalists," but "violent extremists." However, ABC aired their own segment on biomedical firms possibly breaking the law to obtain organs from unborn babies. In 2000, Chris Wallace, then with ABC, revealed on 20/20 that a "hidden camera investigation has found a thriving industry, in which aborted fetuses women donate to help medical research are being marketed for hundreds – even thousands of dollars."