Tag Archives: Abortion

Planned Parenthood Staffer Admits Potential Violation of Federal Law

A new video has been released by the Center for Medical Progress showing a Planned Parenthood staffer apparently admitting to violating federal law.

In the video, Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, says the group alters their abortion process to collect specimens, which is a violation of federal law.

“Yeah, and so if we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, then we can make it part of the budget, that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this,” Farrell said in the video. “I mean it’s all just a matter of line items.”

Planned Parenthood and their supporters have been claiming the videos are misleading and that they do not actually alter their processes to collect specimens for profit in violation of law.  They claim all they do is receive payments to cover costs – which is legal.

“And you know, when it matters, you know in the cases of when it’s mattered, you know, physicians also need an intact specimen, they can make it happen,” said Farrell, noting that some of the clinic’s doctors have research projects of their own for which they’re collecting specimens.

“So they do it in a way that they get the best specimens,” Farrell said. “So I know it can happen.”

The release of the video is causing an investigation of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, ordered by Governor Bobby Jindal.  The group’s head sent a letter to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals on July 24th claiming their group did not sell or donate fetal tissue.

“Do any Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast facilities, or any affiliates, subsidiaries or associates thereof, sell or donate any unborn baby organs or body parts? Answer: No.” President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melaney A. Linton wrote in the letter to Louisiana Dept. of Health and Hospitals Secretary Kathy Kliebert.

Linton released a statement Tuesday about the video.

“Instead, the latest tape shows an extremely offensive intrusion and lack of respect for women, with footage of medical tissue in a lab,” read Linton’s statement. “These extremists show a total lack of compassion and dignity for women’s most personal medical decisions.”

The Senate yesterday failed in a vote to defund Planned Parenthood.

Court Blocks Release of Some Planned Parenthood Videos

A California court has ruled that the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) cannot release some of their videos from the undercover Planned Parenthood investigation until a hearing on August 12th.

The videos feature three executives from StemExpress, a company that works with Planned Parenthood to provide parts of aborted babies to various clients.

The ruling does not block the release of videos that do not contain employees of StemExpress.

“The ruling is very narrow, concerning only one specific meeting, and it is temporary and contingent pending further litigation,” David Daleiden, the lead researcher with CMP said. “The judge actually threw out completely the part of StemExpress’ case where they were asking to suppress the documents on their baby parts sales.”

Daleiden says that the group has at least nine more videos to be released showing the operations of Planned Parenthood in selling baby body parts.

The third video released by CMP showed a former StemExpress employee speaking about the way they would seek certain body parts for higher prices.

“The harder and more valuable the tissue, the more money you get,” Holly O’Donnell says in the video. “So if you can somehow procure a brain or a heart, you’re going to get more money than just chorionic villi or umbilical cord. That’s basically what it is. So I guess that’s an incentive to try and get the hard stuff.”

Pro-Life Activist Says The Enemy Is Not Planned Parenthood

(Note:  This article comes from an interview conducted between staff writer Jason Wert and pro-life activist and former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson.)

In the wake of the release of a third video by the Center of Medical Progress (CMP) showing Planned Parenthood allegedly harvesting aborted body parts for specific financial gain, a pro-life advocate is issuing a warning to those in the pro-life community that Planned Parenthood is not the enemy of the pro-life movement.

“Planned Parenthood is not the enemy,” Abby Johnson told USA Headline News.  “The enemy is abortion. The enemy is our society that has accepted abortion as a viable way to deal with an unintended pregnancy.”

“Even with the fetal harvesting and everything that we see in these videos, Planned Parenthood is a symptom of a much larger problem.”

Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director, walked away from the organization in 2009 after watching a 13-week-old child fighting to avoid the tools of the abortionist during an ultrasound abortion procedure.  Planned Parenthood was so threatened by Johnson speaking out about the organization’s practices that the group tried to sue her into silence with a gag order.

She says that in the rush to stand up for the lives of the babies killed by Planned Parenthood, we need to realize there is a bigger picture than just the babies. She says that many of the women working for Planned Parenthood and working in the organizations that buy the fetal body parts are conflicted about their work.

Johnson recently wrote an open letter to Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of Planned Parenthood’s medical services featured in one of the CMP videos, encouraging her to leave the industry.

“I hope that the pro-life movement will see these workers as human beings who have inherent value and worth,” Johnson said. “We should be praying for them, we should be compassionately and mercifully be reaching out [to] them rather than condemning them because we know through our organization that conversion is possible for anyone.”

Johnson’s organization, “And Then There Were None”, works to help workers who want to escape the abortion industry.

Johnson also says that she believes the members of Planned Parenthood actually believe the propaganda they tell Congress and others about their operations being legal, ethical and above board.

“I think that any time in life if you tell yourself a lie enough, if you hear a lie enough times, that you really do believe it,” she said.  “I think they really do believe what they’re saying.  They’ve obviously very misguided people.”

While the scenes revealed in the video are egregious, Johnson maintains that the sale of aborted body parts is standard practice within the abortion industry.

“People are acting like this is terrible because they are selling the parts or there are parts or they have to piece the babies back together,” Johnson said.  “That happens after every single abortion procedure, period. That happens whether they are harvesting parts or not… a P.O.C. technician stands in a lab and pieces the parts of these babies back together just like we saw in the video today.”

“It happens every day in clinics across the country,” she said. “It happens about 3,000 times every day.”

Johnson hopes the undercover videos might help get people motivated to stop the practice.

“It shows the barbarism of abortion and if that’s what it takes to get people off their couches and motivated to do something to end abortion, we’ll take it,” Johnson said.

Third Undercover Planned Parenthood Video Shows Harvesting of Baby Parts

A new video from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) shows technicians for a stem-cell company picking through aborted babies at a Planned Parenthood facility for body parts.

At one point, a technician finds intact kidneys and a voice off camera laughs and then says “five stars!”

The video features a former technician for the company StemExpress who found herself part of the harvesting process at Planned Parenthood and told CMP they were told to “try and get the hard stuff” because of the increased money it would mean for Planned Parenthood.

“For whatever we could procure, they would get a certain percentage,” said Holly O’Donnell. “The main nurse was always trying to make sure we got our specimens. No one else really cared, but the main nurse did because she knew that Planned Parenthood was getting compensated.”

“StemExpress is a company that hires procurement techs to draw blood and dissect dead fetuses and sell the parts to researchers,” she said. “They’ve partnered with Planned Parenthood and they get part of the money because we pay them to use their facilities. And they get paid from it. They do get some kind of benefit.”

O’Donnell also says in the video she worked for six months identifying pregnant women at Planned Parenthood who would meet the standards for fetal issue orders and helped harvest the fetal body parts.

In the video, one Planned Parenthood staffer talks about the pricing structure of the dissected bodies.

I think the per-item [pricing] works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it,” the staffer said. CMP identifies the staffer as Dr. Savita Ginde, who is vice president and medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Denver.

CMP says they have more footage that they will be releasing over the next few weeks.

Former Planned Parenthood Director Says Group Makes Up To $200 Profit Off Body Parts

A former Planned Parenthood director who renounced her previous life and is now a pro-life advocate says that during her time at Planned Parenthood she shipped out body parts at profits that reached $200 a piece.

“Shipping only costs a clinic $4 to $10 but they are sometimes charging $100 to $200 for each baby,” Abby Johnson told The Christian Post.

“They are charging additional fees, but in reality there are no additional fees except for minimal shipping costs,” Johnson added. “There is definitely money to be made and that’s an issue with the current law.

Johnson watched the videos and verified the information that was being shared is accurate.

“During the season of tissue harvesting, an intact body was gold. An intact fetal body is considered perfection in the land of fetal tissue research. But dismembered body parts were okay, too…and that is usually what we gave them,” Johnson said.  “I didn’t see anything taken out of context. What those doctors said was said, period.”

Johnson released an open letter to Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the woman seen in the first undercover video released by the undercover investigation.  She shares that she was once where Dr. Nucatola is today and that Christ has a better way to live life than aborting babies for Planned Parenthood and selling the body parts.

Wisconsin Governor Signs 20 Week Abortion Ban

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has signed a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks.

The bill banning late-term abortions includes a provision to protect the mother’s life or health.  The ban is similar to those in 14 other states.

“For people, regardless of where they might stand, when an unborn child can feel pain I think most people feel it’s appropriate to protect that child,” Walker said, according to Al Jazeera America.

Any doctor caught performing an abortion after 20 weeks in Wisconsin could face 3 1/2 years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

The bill will likely be challenged by pro-abortion groups in light of a federal court ruling in May striking down Idaho’s 20-week ban.  Arizona had similar ban struck down and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal from the state.

In my past four years as governor, we have made substantial progress in the fight for our pro-life values in Wisconsin,” Walker wrote on March 3rd about the abortion issue.  “We defunded Planned Parenthood. We prohibited abortion from being covered by health plans in a health exchange. We passed legislation assuring the women and their unborn child are better protected under law – through placing stringent requirements on medical professionals and requiring the provision of thorough and vital information to the mother.

I was raised to believe in the sanctity of life and I will always fight to protect it.”

Video Shows Planned Parenthood Doctor Haggling Over Body Part Prices

A new video from an undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood shows one of their staff doctors haggling over prices with investigators she believes to be part of a medical research firm.

The video shows two investigators from the Center for Medical Progress at a meeting with Dr. Mary Gatter, president of the Planned Parenthood Medical Directors’ Council, where they discuss the fees for “intact tissue.”

One exchange in the video shows Gatter entering into negotiations for prices of intact aborted babies:

Investigator:  What would make you happy?  What would work for you?

Gatter:  Well, you know in negotiations the people who throws out the figure first is at a loss, right?  So…(laughing)

Investigator:  No, I don’t look at it that way.  I know, you want to play that game, I get it.

Gatter:  I don’t want to play games, I just don’t want to lowball, because I’m used to low things from…

Investigator:  You know what?  If you lowball, I’ll act pleasantly surprised and you’ll know it’s a lowball.

Gatter:  Okay.

Investigator:  What I want to know is what would work for you.  Don’t lowball it, tell me what you really…

Gatter:  OK.  $75 a specimen.

Gatter even talks to another staff member about changing the procedure to a “less crunchy” method to preserve the babies for distribution to medical researchers.

“If we want to pursue this mutually I’ll mention this to Ian in terms of how he feels about using a ‘less crunchy’ technique to get more whole specimens,” Gatter says.

At the end of the lunch, Gatter suggests that even $100 a specimen (which the investigators suggested) is not enough.

“Let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, then it’s fine, if it’s still low, then we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini,” Gatter says.

The video is the second released by the undercover investigators.  The previous video drew an apology from the group’s leader because of the “tone” of the employee in the video.

Planned Parenthood CEO Apologies for “Tone” of Staff Member

The head of Planned Parenthood has released an apology over an undercover video where a staff member appeared to discuss the selling of body parts from aborted babies.

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, defended the practice of the organization but apologized for the tone of the staff member because she said it did not reflect the “compassionate care we provide.”

“Our top priority is the compassionate care that we provide. In the video, one of our staff members speaks in a way that does not reflect that compassion. This is unacceptable, and I personally apologize for the staff member’s tone and statements,” Richards says in the video. “As always, if there is any aspect of our work that can be strengthened, we want to know about it, and we take swift action to address it.”

The undercover video has drawn condemnation from Congress where House Speaker John Boehner called the video “disgusting.”  Several House committees have said they will conduct investigations into the video and into Planned Parenthood’s operations.

Senator Chuck Grassley of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the attorney general requesting information about whether the video shows violations of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.

The videotaped discussion, he wrote, “raises questions about whether the actions of abortion providers, and in particular those employed by Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, are consistent with federal law.  I respectfully request that you provide the Committee with a description of any and all actions taken by the Department to ensure compliance with this statute.”

Planned Parenthood Accused of Selling Body Parts of Aborted Babies

A new video shows a Planned Parenthood executive drinking wine in a Los Angeles restaurant while talking about how the organizations sells body parts from aborted babies.

The video, filmed by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), shows two undercover actors posing as representatives of a human biologics company.  They met Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Debroah Nucatola, for lunch.

The video depicts Nucatola explaining in graphic detail how abortionists harvest the organs from aborted babies based on the demand.

“Yesterday was the first time she said people wanted lungs,” Nucatola told the undercover buyers in the video. “Some people want lower extremities, too, which, that’s simple. That’s easy. I don’t know what they’re doing with it, I guess if they want muscle.”

“Yeah – a dime a dozen,” an actor responds.

“I’d say a lot of people want liver,” Nucatola said. “And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps.”

Planned Parenthood claims the video does not tell the real story.

“In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, such as treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different,” Planned Parenthood’s vice president for communications, Eric Ferrero, said in a statement to the London Guardian newspaper.

Planned Parenthood claims the video is just another attempt by a group focused on damaging the abortionist’s reputation.

David Daleiden of CMP claims that Planned Parenthood’s response shows that they’re lying in their response because they admit money is exchanged despite denials.

“Planned Parenthood makes two key admissions in their statement today; first, that aborted fetal parts are harvested at their clinics, and second, that money is exchanged in connection with this,” Daleiden said.

Kansas To Appeal Judge’s Ruling Blocking Abortion Law

The Kansas Attorney General has filed an intent to appeal the decision of a local judge that blocked the enforcement of a new abortion law.

The notice filed by lawyers representing Attorney General Derek Schmidt states they intend to ask the Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling of District Judge Larry Hendricks.  He had put the law on hold until he hears a lawsuit filed by a New York group on behalf of two Kansas abortionists.

The Kansas law bans what is known as “dismemberment abortion”, defined as “knowingly dismembering a living unborn child and extracting such unborn child….”

“This is a horrific procedure,” Gov. Sam Brownback’s spokesman Eileen Hawley told reporters. “He hopes the nation follows suit.”

“The U.S. Supreme Court has made it clear that states are able to put in place regulations on the abortion industry, which is exactly what SB 95 does,” Sen. Garrett Love, the bill’s sponsor, said in an e-mail to the Wichita Eagle. “ … Kansans want to protect life at all stages and don’t want unborn babies to have their lives ended in this manner.”