After documents surfaced earlier this month showing that Florida Gov. Rick Scott's office suppressed the findings of state regulators who found there was "no mishandling of fetal remains" by Planned Parenthood clinics, the state health agency's Communications Director Katherine Riviere left office.
The findings were initially sent to the governor's office in mid-August, amid a wave of conservative pressure in states across the U.S. to cut Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. The pressure intensified on Republican governors as a series of secretly recorded “sting” videos made by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress were revealed, one after the other. The videos accused Planned Parenthood of illegally profiting from the distribution of fetal tissue, an allegation the organization has strongly denied.
Emails exchanged in early August and acquired by Politico Florida show top officials in the governor's office scrubbed a news release from the state Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) that originally stated "there is no evidence of the mishandling of fetal remains at any of the 16 clinics we investigated across the state."
However, an email sent by Scott’s communications director, Jackie Schutz, shows that sentence was removed.
"I would have thought a line on no evidence of mishandling of fetal remains would be included as that’s what questions will be on," Riviere said in an email to Scott and ACHA senior staff before the news release was published.
In response, AHCA Secretary Liz Dudek wrote that she "agreed with [Riviere's] comment," Politico reported.
In a letter announcing her decision to resign sent around a week after Scott's office released the edited report, Riviere said she was heading for "pastures news" so her husband could pursue business opportunities in another city.
"Katherine resigned on her own terms, she was not forced out," AHCA spokeswoman Shelisha Coleman told BuzzFeed News in an email. "Her resignation letter speaks for itself."
Riviere did not immediately responded to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
The version of the news release revised by Scott's office also noted that the AHCA would refer physicians who worked at the clinics to the Board of Medicine for possible disciplinary action, Politico reported.
The AHCA referred BuzzFeed News to Scott's office for comment, who did not respond.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Planned Parenthood Vice President of Communications Eric Ferrero said the previously unreported AHCA findings only "add to the mounting evidence that this entire smear campaign is completely baseless."
"It’s clear anti-abortion extremists will do anything — lie, harass women and doctors, and reportedly break the law — in an effort to ban abortion and block millions from accessing care at Planned Parenthood," Ferrero said.
Scott's health care inspectors, the AHCA initially reported that three clinics performed unlicensed second-trimester abortions and that one did not follow its own guidelines for the disposal of fetal remains.
Those findings were later amended by the AHCA after Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in federal court and produced letters from their own agency disproving the claim. Now the AHCA contends that Planned Parenthood was not performing unlicensed abortions, but misreporting them.
A Planned Parenthood official told BuzzFeed News that even that claim was "absolutely not true."
Emails between Planned Parenthood attorneys and the ACHA further demonstrate an attempt to reconcile a disagreement over reporting procedures before taking the agency to court. Unable to compromise, Planned Parenthood took legal action and sought an injunction to block the state from taking regulatory action against the clinics. The case has since gone to trial.
Florida was one of more than a dozen states to investigate Planned Parenthood over claims of profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. So far, investigations in seven states have found them in compliance with the law.
Correction
Katherine Riviere submitted her letter of resignation on Aug. 21. An earlier version of this article said that the letter was submitted on Tuesday, Sept. 15.