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.