Many Americans have heard about the undercover videos exposing the abortion-and-baby-part practices of Planned Parenthood. The truth must be known. If you believe the videos to be heavily edited, watch for yourself and judge; full-length versions are available. Some tout the line “the transcripts show select editing,” but ask that Planned-Parenthood-defender if they have read those transcripts. Every senator who voted to keep funding Planned Parenthood, against the majority of senators, should be asked if they have seen the videos themselves.
But if you can’t stomach it, if you simply can’t bring yourself to watch the graphic images and hear the callous tones, we understand. “I just can’t bring myself to watch” is true for many, from stay at home moms to young professionals and many others. Many may get sick thinking about it, but know they should know what is happening. Or, women who are post-abortive may struggle to watch. Concerned Women for America wants to be sensitive to post-abortive women who may be profoundly affected by these videos as they trigger hidden emotions. There are women who silently regret abortion and suffer for years. Some may have arrived at the point of wanting to know what is being said about Planned Parenthood, of being glad that Planned Parenthood is finally being exposed for what they are. But they still might not be able to stomach the actual video; it would hit too close.
For all those who cannot watch for any of these reasons or others, video summaries have been prepared. No doubt the information can only be toned down so much. It is disturbing in and of itself, but we hope some who cannot watch will benefit from reading.
INTRODUCTION TO THESE VIDEOS
The Center for Medical Progress is an educational non-profit. They have released five videos and plan to release many more. Two actors, a man and a woman, formed a fake company seeking to purchase baby parts from Planned Parenthood to use the parts for medical research. Some videos are summaries of meetings with Planned Parenthood staff whom they have secretly taped. Of the five videos, the fourth one is Episode 1 of their documentary web series chronicling this undercover journey. Their website explains more.
Taxpayers fund Planned Parenthood at half a billion dollars per year. This money is said to not be going to abortion but rather to Planned Parenthood’s other health services. In reality the number of abortions performed is increasing while cancer screenings are decreasing, and any money federally funding other services frees up Planned Parenthood’s revenue to focus on abortion. It all goes to the same organization with the same goals.
Planned Parenthood Uses Partial-Birth Abortions to Sell Baby Parts
Released: Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Illegal Activity: Partial-Birth Abortion; Procedural Alterations, Potentially Profiting from “Tissue Donation.”
Setting: Lunch with Deborah Nucatola, M.D., Senior Director of Medical Services of Planned Parenthood on the national level. She is shown eating while discussing these issues. Almost the entire footage is set at lunch. They also show Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards saying that Deborah is “great.” The video at the beginning shows clips from a national debate over fetal sales that occurred when the laws against partial-birth abortion and organ sale were written; laws Planned Parenthood is disregarding.
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- There was some discussion of perception; they do not want to appear like they are making money, and they do this by charging more to collect specimens. This is a “Just Pay Shipping and Handling” method that, as Verily Magazine reported, is like a scam.
- Nucatola names particular baby parts that seem popular for research companies, like liver and the head.
- To get the head, the procedure is altered to be like partial-birth abortion, which is illegal. People will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not “vertex,” Nucatola continues. “So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end.” Furthermore, “The Federal [Partial-Birth] Abortion ban is a law, and laws are up to interpretation.” She also is saying procedures are altered for the purpose of obtaining tissue: “If you maintain enough of a dialogue with the person who’s actually doing the procedure, so they understand what the end-game is, there are little things, changes they can make in their technique to increase their success.” She also says it is worth having a “huddle at the beginning of the day” to tell the staff what parts she needs. (The HHS guidelines state the doctors shouldn’t even know the results of a particular procedure will then be donated.)
- “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
- Each specimen is priced for $30-$100. That’s each particular body organ sold.
Full Footage is also available.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD RESPONSE VIDEO
Planned Parenthood: Cecile Richards Official Video Response
Released: July 16, 2015
Released in response to the first undercover video exposing Planned Parenthood, Cecile takes just over two minutes to explain that Planned Parenthood does allow research companies to use “fetal tissue” for research.
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- She proclaims, “The allegation that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true. Our donation program … follows all laws and ethical guidelines.” She claimed the videos were “heavily edited.”
- She then apologizes for the video’s tone. “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 … I personally apologize for the staff member’s tone and statements.”
- The video goes on to explain that Planned Parenthood will continue to let women who wish to donate tissue for medical research do so. She thanks women who have thus far contributed to “life-saving research” through the program.
- Planned Parenthood has not said whether they have fired Deborah Nucatola.
Second Planned Parenthood Senior Executive Haggles Over Baby Parts Prices, Changes Abortion Methods
Released: Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Setting: Another Luncheon. This time with President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Medical Directors’ Council Mary Gatter.
Illegal Activity: Procedural Alterations, Profiting from “Tissue Donation.”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- She doesn’t want to “lowball” a price and may need to “bump it up” if other buyers in the area are paying more than these buyers were offering. “Why don’t you start by telling me what you are used to paying … You know in negotiations the person who throws out the figure first is at a loss right? … I just don’t want to lowball when I’m used to low things.”
- Gatter says she will talk directly with the surgeon who does the abortions about changing the procedure. She thinks that the change can be justified without endangering the woman.
- She is willing to do a “less crunchy” technique to obtain more whole specimens.
- “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.” She then jokingly adds: “I want a Lamborghini.”
- Actually negotiating prices makes it very difficult for Planned Parenthood to continue the defense that they are not profiting off the sale of “tissue.” She does say “there is compensation for this.”
- Though she says she isn’t in it for the money and doesn’t want to be accused of selling tissue, she says there are costs associated with the space and then asks, “What were you thinking about [paying?]” She also says that it has to be “big enough that it’s worthwhile for me” to go through the trouble of procuring the baby parts.
Planned Parenthood and its supporters are still trying to claim the costs are varying due to administrative time, storage, extra trouble changing the procedure, etc., and there is no profit to be made.
Full Footage is also available.
Human Capital — Episode 1: Planned Parenthood’s Black Market in Baby Parts
Released: Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Setting: This video features Holly O’Donnell, who draws blood for a living and is passionate about this. She then applied for a job at StemExpress, where they didn’t tell her what she would be doing — procuring tissue from aborted fetuses. The video ends with a conversation with Dr. Savita Ginde, an abortionist who is the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, and scenes of body parts at an abortion clinic.
Illegal Activity: Profiting from “Tissue Donation.”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- Holly, an ex-Procurement Technician, fainted upon picking up the baby parts she was supposed to gather up after an abortion. She eventually left the job at StemExpress. She says the owner of StemExpress is “making a lot of money off poor girls who half the time don’t even want to get abortions. It’s a pretty sick company.”
- There was a tone of excitement when the buyer’s explained to Savita Ginde that clinics would be compensated: “We return a portion of our fees to the clinic.”
- “From whatever we [the StemExpress company] could procure they [the abortion clinic] would get a certain percentage.” “The harder and the more valuable the tissue the more money you get. If you can somehow procure a brain or a heart you are going to get more money … I guess that’s an incentive to try and get the hard stuff.”
- The video continues by showing actual baby parts and tweezers used to separate different parts. The baby who was aborted was labeled 11.6 weeks old. It is clear that a baby at this staged is well formed, and body parts can be differentiated.
- After Holly fainted, one of the nurses says, “You’re new, huh; don’t worry it still happens to a bunch of us; some of us never get over it.”
- “The per item thing [pricing] works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it.” That makes it hard to say if it is for procedural labor and storage when it’s all a big pile and being priced differently.
Planned Parenthood VP Says Fetuses May Come Out Intact, Agrees Payments Specific to the Specimen
Released: Thursday, July 30, 2015
Setting: This continues the conversation with Dr. Savita Ginde at a Mega-Clinic Headquarters.
Illegal Activity: Potentially Born Alive Babies; Profiting from “Tissue Donation.”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- “If someone delivers before we are able to see them for a procedure then we are intact, um, but that’s not what we go for.”
- “We’d have to do a little bit of training with the providers or something, to make sure they didn’t crush.”
- There is discussion of every Planned Parenthood doing this to coordinate the language so that compensation falls under “processing and time” for “research.” Because if one Planned Parenthood was doing it for business and another for research, that would look bad. “If we all decide that we’re going to do it outside of research, then we do it outside of research. But if we all decide to do it under research, that we have a different path, that we know we’re all registering and doing the same thing.”
- “If you have someone in a really anti-state doing this for you, they’re probably going to get caught.” “We don’t want to get called on, you know, ‘selling fetal parts across states’ … So how do we protect ourselves?”
- Baby parts are then shown. At one point the doctor says, “You can just put your hand in there and pick out the parts, so I don’t think it would be as war-torn.” Warning, the worst lines comes at the very end. Upon identifying the gender of an aborted fetus the clinic worker proclaims, “And another boy.”
Full Footage is also available.
Intact Fetuses “Just a Matter of Line Items” for Planned Parenthood Texas Mega-Center
Released: Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Setting: Mellissa Farrell, the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. Before she is shown, Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood director and now pro-life activist, is then shown giving a testimony, “That would be $100 per specimen, 50 specimens per day, would be $5,000 per day that Planned Parenthood was collecting from fetal tissue. Extrapolate that — $120,000 per month. That is certainly not ‘recouping costs.’”
Illegal Activity: Profiting from “Tissue Donation,” Procedural Alterations.
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- Farrell says that the clinic has the advantage because they’ve been doing this for years. She also replies, “Yeah,” when the buyer is saying that she has probably seen in her past work that there are financial benefits to tissue procurement. “I think everyone realizes especially because my department contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here. … We’re one of the largest affiliates; our Research Department is the largest in the United States.”
- She affirms that the doctors were doing their own research on baby parts they had aborted. “Some of our doctors in the past have projects, and they’re collecting the specimens, so they do it in a way that they get the best specimens, so I know it can happen.”
- She says the procedure could be altered; they would figure out how to do the abortion to have the highest chance of an intact specimen. “We can get creative about when and where and under what conditions can we interject something that is specific to the tissue needs.”
- Reading a list of what a study desires, they desired 120 specimens of all different kinds.
- Administrative time, a more complex procedure, and a longer procedure at a later gestational age are all used to justify paying more for specimens. “If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers [intact dead infant bodies], then we can make it part of the budget, that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. I mean that’s – it’s all just a matter of line items.”
- Baby parts are then shown; some are blocked by the screen to reduce the shock, but many are visible. They discuss the dilation, gestational age, and “for lack of a better word how cooperative the patient is during the procedure” under conscious sedation as factors in obtaining more intact specimens.
- This mega-clinic says they can abort and seek specimens from 40-50 babies per month at 16-22 weeks gestational age.
- There was a conference, “Patient Service Day,” and one of the topics was “fetal collection.” They said over the years measures that there needed to be the same exact consent form have lessened and allowed variety.
Full Footage is also available.
Human Capital – Episode 2: Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site
Released: Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Setting: Holly O’Donnell, whom we saw in Video 3, which was Human Capital Episode 3, is interviewed. She continues her story of working as a procurement technician for Stem Express, working with a Planned Parenthood clinic to obtain women’s blood and baby parts.
Illegal Activity: Lack of Consent from Woman
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- “Each procurement tech usually has an assigned clinic that you want to build a relationship with.” In other words, there is a very conscious assignment of a person collecting the specimen with one particular Planned Parenthood where they are actively working each day to obtain needed specimens.
- “[The abortion clinic I was assigned to] was in um actually an alley … I would work for eight hours and there would be 40 something patients, it really wore me down … you can hear screaming. You can hear crying.”
- There are forms shown listing different needed specimens, and then listing the amount of the bonuses that a procurement technician receives from obtaining different types of specimens by type and amount. There is also an online system of instant messaging allowing a procurement tech to mark which specimens they are able to obtain, and then everyone from multiple clinics can view what is still needed.
- Based on what is needed for a study, certain girls at certain gestational ages are targeted to obtain consent from them. There was a consent form that was used requiring a woman to sign that she had already decided she would get an abortion, but Holly says that they often hadn’t fully made up their mind to get one.
- The abortionist would get mad if there wasn’t a girl in the room, pacing the hallways if there wasn’t something to do, “It’s almost like he wanted to do it.” He was known for going really fast with the women he saw.
- Other people in the clinic not licensed to draw blood were doing so. Holly says her co-workers wouldn’t obtain consent, “If there was a higher gestation … there were times when they would just take what they want. And these mothers don’t know.” Her co-workers would get angry at her for not pressuring women harder into deciding to have her abortion or deciding to donate their “tissue.” Holly also says her co-workers are desensitized to the doubts and cries and sickness of the girls. “That was an opportunity you just missed.”
- “I’m not going to tell a girl to kill her baby so that I can get money, and that’s what this company does.”
- “There’s a reason why they keep journals in the recovery room. If abortion was a good thing there wouldn’t be such-so much emotional damage from it.”
- The packages of specimens are shipped via FedEx. “People would ask what was in the box, and I didn’t know what to say-like-oh there’s, there’s dead baby parts in there.”
**Prior to the release of Video 7, StemExpress announced an end to their “business relationship” with Planned Parenthood. The Center for Medical Progress comments indicate that this may merely be a way to save face.
Human Capital – Episode 3: Planned Parenthood’s Custom Abortions for Superior Product
Released: Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Setting: This is a continuation of the interviews with Holly O’Donnell, former “procurement technician” [body part collector] at Planned Parenthood on behalf of StemExpress. It also shows clips from previous Center for Medical Progress videos and a couple other quick new clips from new interviews.
Illegal Activity: Partial-Birth Abortion, Procedural Alterations, Born-Alive Babies
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- Holly explains she read an e-mail with the message that the abortionist had aborted a fully intact fetus and is shipping it straight to the lab. A new clip from Perrin Larton, Procurement Manager for Advanced BioScience Resources, explaining how fast a procedure can go, and sometimes the fetus just comes out (implying aborted babies sometimes are delivered whole).
- We see Deborah Nucatola’s interview again about altering to breach presentation under ultrasound guidance to obtain more and more dilation to obtain the baby’s body more intact.
- Holly recounts a case of a woman who was squirmy, but after she calmed down enough for the abortion, Holly is called over to see the most gestated fetus she had seen, and says another worker tapped the heart, and it started beating (not shown). Then there is audio from Dr. Ben Van Handel, Executive Director of another lab — Novogenix Laboratories — “There are times when after the procedure is done that the heart actually is still beating.”
- Clips discuss digoxin with Deborah Nucatola explaining that some providers use it to “induce the demise,” (poison the child) before it comes out, to avoid accusations of partial-birth abortion. Then the undercover CMP activist, David Daleiden, explains in a CNN clip that digoxin can’t be used in the cases of intact delivery because that would poison the organs needed for procurement, thus there exists evidence that there are born-alive infant cases. Holly explains that electrical current nodes are still firing and she doesn’t know whether to technically call that dead or alive.
- “It had a face, it wasn’t completely torn up, and its nose was very pronounced, it had eyelids, and its mouth was pronounced.” As Holly says these words, a graphic image of an aborted baby is shown, courtesy of the Grantham Collection & Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.
- Holly is told that this fetus will be great for procurement, and the other worker cuts through a part of the baby’s face and asks Holly to “go the rest of the way.” Holly reluctantly says she dissected the baby, cutting down the face (not shown), “I cannot even, like, describe, like, what that feels like.” She then describes that she knew she couldn’t still work there. “Even if it’s gonna be good — in fact could’ve been the cure for some kinda disease — then I wish, even if it was, I wish I still wouldn’t have done it. I don’t want to be that person.” She then describes having to shove his body into the container. Another very intact, large image of an aborted baby is shown. “It’s just really hard knowing that you are the only person who’s ever going to hold that baby.” She says she imagines what the child might have been.
- Holly says “Life isn’t a mistake. I mean, getting pregnant can be an accident, but it’s not a mistake.”
Human Capital Project Trailer – An Investigative Journalism Study by the Center for Medical Progress
Released: Friday, August 21, 2015
This video is a compilation of clips from the Human Capital series, of which we have seen three episodes up to this point. It serves as a trailer for the series and summarizes several key points. The only new clip is a StemExpress CEO joking about how you should tell the lab what is coming so as to avoid shock when you see a whole baby in the box. Presumably more footage from the StemExpress CEO is coming soon.
Most Important Themes:
- Planned Parenthood gets part of the money of partnerships with labs.
- Planned Parenthood targets certain organs that have been ordered.
- Planned Parenthood alters their process at times in such a way as to have “intact cases,” shipping a full dead baby to a lab all together.
Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Buyer StemExpress Wants “Another 50 Livers/Week.”
Released: Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Setting: This is an interview with StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer, again at lunch, meeting with the undercover investigators about forming a deal to provide specimens to the StemExpress labs. She explains that there are poor conditions at clinics, that there are whole specimen cases where you ship the whole dead baby to a lab, and that lab techs often want to forget from where the parts are coming.
Illegal Activity: Potential Health and Safety Clinic Violations, Profiting from “Tissue Donation”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- “Volume wise … what do feel like you can get … on specifically liver tissue because that’s such an area of demand for us?” She later says that another 50 livers per week would make her happy.
- “Oh yeah, I mean if you have intact cases, which we’ve done a lot, we sometimes ship those back to our lab in its entirety, so that would also be great if you have those.”
- “The procurement for us, I mean it can go really sideways, depending on the facility, and then our samples are destroyed.” She later explains that contamination is a big problem and that some clinics have “rampant problems with bacteria in certain clinics, some where you kind of like in question of really should they … [be doing abortion, is what she is implying] … I’ve seen staph [infection] come out of clinics.”
- Dyer explains that doctors provide “blood clots” thinking it’s an actual liver and it’s “just red water by the time it gets to us.” This explains further that this isn’t just tissue or blood sent to the lab, it is actual parts and organs.
- They discuss that the clinics, middleman, and lab should all be financially benefitting from this. Dyer says there aren’t any clinics she knows of that feel like they are doing work and it hasn’t been profitable. In other words, clinics are happy because it’s profitable to sell baby parts.
- Dyer explains that when you send a whole calvarium [head], you should “tell the lab it is coming so they don’t open the box and go ‘Oh God!’ Hahahaha.”
- “It’s almost like they don’t want to know where they come from … where they’re like, ‘we need limbs, but no hands and feet need to be attached’ … they want you to take it all off, like make it so that we don’t know what it is.” The buyer compares it to boning a chicken before you eat it, and Dyer responds, “That’s it. But we know what it is … Their lab techs freak out and have meltdowns … ultimately some of them get into a lot of other things … they want to look at adult-based sampling … they want to get away from having to publish a picture — a paper that says they derived this from fetal tissue.”
- Dyer says that Planned Parenthood has been supportive and that they are in the cause and that they don’t need you around if you aren’t a champion for the cause. She later says Planned Parenthood produces good volume, “because they are a volume institution.”
Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Vendor ABR Pays Off Clinics; Intact Fetuses “Just Fell Out”
Released: Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Setting: This is a mix of three interviews with former Planned Parenthood Medical Director Katherine Sheehan, with StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer, and with Advanced BioScience Resources (ABR) Procurement Manager Perrin Larton. We have seen some clips of these conversations before, but we now get to witness in finer detail the inner workings of the baby-part market. ABR and StemExpress are competitors, each wanting Planned Parenthood to supply them with baby parts.
Illegal Activity: Intact Cases, Profiting from “Tissue Donation”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- “We just kinda renegotiated the contract,” Sheehan of Planned Parenthood explains. When told by the undercover buyer that a portion of fees would be returned to the clinic from which the baby parts came, she says “Right, get a toe in and make it, make a pro-.” The word “profit” is implied.
- Larton from ABR explains, “Embryotic, there is still a lot of controversy about that, but fetal kind of got lost in the mix … [federal funding towards it] was never outlawed where during the, uh, Bush Administration, Bush 1, it was, um, it was no federal funding could go to … embryotic cell research, but fetal tissue was taken out of that, so we used to send tissue to people like NIH [National Institutes of Health], even though the government was paying for it [because] fetal tissue wasn’t put in that little box of ’embryotic’ because it’s different. … Now they are trying to make abortion illegal, and that’s where we get our tissue.” (In a recent debate with Penny Nance on the O’Reilly factor, the pro-choice representative claimed that baby parts weren’t a part of research, only stem cells. This video proves that there are actual baby body parts being used here, and that this is different than stem cells.)
- A dilemma arises: clinics want to poison the baby with digoxin to avoid a born-alive case, but they also can’t use digoxin for cases that will become research parts. Sometimes clinics try to get away with digoxin, but the research companies can tell their sample was tainted. Sometimes in the abortion everything “just gets ripped up.” And in other times there is an intact and possibly born-alive case if a woman had had several births before the child, “The whole point is not to have a live birth … unless … I’ve seen cases, the fetus was already in the vaginal canal … it just fell out … if they’ve had a lot of births that’s kind of what happens.” Though she does say, “Most of the time it is not intact.”
- “Whenever we have a smooth portion of liver, we think that’s good.”
- When the buyer says doctors who rip things apart aren’t serving his interests, she says, “Or mine! It really pisses me off.”
- Cate Dyer trashes ABR as a “non-profit” who was really “funding places in Hawaii for themselves” and not paying the clinics, but Cate wants to pay the clinic directly for the tissue, as well as be a taxpayer who is thus contributing to Planned Parenthood: “So I want to pay you … we are trying to give money to you … and I pay tax, just to be clear, that actually donates/ends up funding programs back to you guys.”
- According to the video, ABR and Planned Parenthood have had a certain person in a paid advisory role to serve mutual interests.
Full Footage is also available (Cate Dyer)
Full Footage is also available (Katherine Sheehan)
Full Footage is also available (Perrin Larton)
Top Planned Parenthood Exec: Baby Parts Sales “A Valid Exchange,” Can Make “A Fair Amount of Income.”
Also Called: Human Capital Episode 4: Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Criminal Enterprise
Released: Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Illegal Activity: Profiting from “Tissue Donation”
Setting: This is the fourth installment of the Human Capital series. Featured are Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, Senior Medical Advisor for Planned Parenthood Federation of America; Deb VanDerhei, National Director for Planned Parenthood’s Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS); and Vanessa Russo, Compliance Program Administrator for Planned Parenthood Keystone. A brief comment by Dr. Vanessa Cullins, as well as flashbacks to Dr. Nucatola’s interview, are also shown. All the new exchanges take place in the context of what appears to be social gatherings and a conference. The overall message: Let’s do this but be very careful not to admit what we are actually doing.
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- Dr. Westoff again points out the distinction between stem cell research and research on fetal tissue: “We haven’t been working with people who want stem cells; we’ve just been working with people who want particular tissues. Like a, you know … they want cardiac, or they want eyes, or they want neural. People want spinal cords … gonads … everything we provide is fresh.”
- A prevalent theme in this video was that they could do this tissue “donation,” but there was great PR risk involved. Westhoff: “Obviously, we would have the potential for a huge … a P.R. issue by doing this.” Cullins: “This is important. This could destroy your company and us, if we don’t have these conversations correctly.” Apparently the correct way to have them is by not saying what you are really doing – which is selling baby body parts. VanDerhei says that they are so cautious they don’t want this topic discussed via email.
- VanDerhei: “Do you um – can I ask you about remuneration?” [The Webster definition of remuneration is “an amount of money paid to someone for the work that person has done.” Google’s definition is “money paid for a work or a service.”]
- VanDerhei says, “We’re trying to figure this out as an industry, about how we’re going to manage remuneration. Because the headlines would be a disaster. We are absent a policy, and that’s relatively intentional.” She goes on to caution clinics to vet their buyer (a true irony as she is speaking to the “buyer” that would expose her!) and to try to do it as “mission-based” instead of for-profit, to think of the potential New York Times headlines and how this could “go bad.” But as she is asking larger abortion clinics to weigh the risk, she later acknowledges that many smaller clinics “have independent colleagues who generate a fair amount of income doing this. And if they have smaller margins or don’t have the ability to fundraise because they’re not a non-profit, that’s [income from sold baby parts and is] really helpful.”
- Russo and VanDerhei then have an exchange: VanDerhei wanting to be very cautious as to how this is done, Russo not caring about tact nearly as much, “I sort of, my stance on that is like, we feel like we can’t consent to be bullied by ridiculous laws and this media that doesn’t understand the big picture … I would love to see this happen somehow. I’m probably maybe not so sensitive to like ridiculous … I don’t feel like we should participate in discussions based on crap … in ridiculous social discussions … And that we should not curtail our business for ridiculousness. Maybe curtail our business for an actual real discussion.” [She later mentions being sensitive to the patient and consent, possibly in reference to being a “real discussion.”] VanDerhei responds, “I don’t think anybody was suggesting that you curtail. The message to me, that I heard today, was ‘Go for it. We think it’s a great idea.’”
- Russo continues: “A company like this, that wants to give our organization money for the tissue, I think that that’s a valid exchange and that’s ok.” VanDerhei explains that a Congressional hearing 15 years ago on changing abortion procedures to obtain better fetal samples was “fraud” but had “scared everyone” and sparked both a hearing and legislation. “We just want to not have to repeat that again.” Too late.
- “There are Planned Parenthoods that participate in donation programs that are reimbursed for it … it’s fine, we’re just suggesting call us … let us help you walk through the steps to make sure that it’s done right.”
- VanDerhie concludes the video, “I hope that she [Rosso] didn’t leave thinking that we were saying ‘don’t do it.’ ‘Cause Roger [a speaker they presumably heard] said I’m going to say a number of things and I only want you to go away with one message: I think this is a good idea.”
Full Footage is also available (Carolyn Westhoff)
Full Footage is also available (Deb Vanderhei)
Full Footage is also available (Vanessa Russo & Deb VanDerhei)
Full Footage is also available (Vanessa Cullins)
Planned Parenthood Texas Abortion Apprentice Taught Partial-Birth Abortion to “Strive for” Intact Heads
Released: October 27, 2015
Illegal Activity: Possible Partial-Birth Abortion
Setting: Undercover investigators posing as a tissue procurement company, BioMax, talk with Dr. Amna Dermish at what appears to be a conference. Dr. Dermish is an abortionist at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas who was trained by Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the Senior Director of Medical Services, (seen in the first video). Another woman from a different abortion clinic, Whole Woman’s Health, also participates in the conversation.
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- Flashback to lunch with Dr. Nucatola: “If there was a trainee, I would just basically say any research case I’m going to do, and as you get better I’ll let you do more of those cases, but we really need to try to do this intact.”
- Dr. Dermish expresses interest rather than dismay or objection to the idea of tissue procurement collection and interest in the discussion of paying the clinics $60 per specimen, $10 more than ABR, implying competition and a market.
- The conversation turns to how abortion clinics are closing in Texas and, thus, increasing demand at the remaining eight clinics still in operation. The Whole Woman’s Health employee explains: “I’m sure there won’t be a problem with volume because of the unfortunate situation the state’s in.”
- Dr. Dermish explains that there have been 25 procedures a day for 10 days a month, now they will be increasing to 30 procedures per day.” That’s 300 abortions per month at one clinic!
- Dr. Dermish explains she performs abortions up to 21.6 weeks, using digoxin after 20 weeks. They discuss how digoxin makes tissue unusable for research. Dr. Dermish says she usually doesn’t “convert to breech” for 16-18 weeks but does sometimes convert to breech under ultrasound guidance for 18-21.6 weeks because it’s easier to get the fetus out. The video explains that this procedure of converting to breech is identical to the illegal partial-birth abortion procedure.(1)
- Dr. Dermish ensures that intact specimens suitable for research wouldn’t be too hard to obtain: “I [already] can usually get good dilation, so my aim is usually to get the specimens out pretty intact.” Dr. Dermish explains that she preps the cervix over time using luminaria (seaweed that helps dilate) so that the pieces come out more whole (which is safer for the woman and would also make this potential to sell specimens for research easier).
- “I haven’t been able to do that yet. The intact calvarium … Well, this will give me something to strive for.” Laughter follows.
- “If it’s a breech presentation, I’ll remove the extremities first, the lower extremities, and then go for the spine and sort of bring it down that way. … I always try to keep the trunk [torso] intact just by function of always trying to aim for the spine.” As she explains this, she uses hand-motions as if she was pulling the baby down and out.
- “One of our POC persons is really into organ development. … She’ll pull out, like, kidneys and the heart at, like, the heart we frequently see at nine weeks and she always looks for it.” “It’s cute,” the other woman jumps in. Dr. Dermish responds in affirmation: “Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s just like, I mean, sort of like I have so much respect for development; it’s just so incredible. So she always — at like 10, 11, 12 weeks — she’s, like, trying to find the kidneys.”
Full Footage is also available.
(1) Technically, the partial-birth abortion ban only applies to infants living at the time of being partially out. If she used digoxin after 20 weeks, inducing fetal demise while still inside, she technically wouldn’t be breaking the law (but only because she killed the baby before delivery!). She also implied that she sometimes converts to breech after 18 weeks but said she is using digoxin at 20 weeks. The other woman from Whole Woman’s Health says that getting non-dig’d samples intact at later gestations would be hard (later gestations do use digoxin to avoid born-alive or partial-birth abortion charges). It’s possible that Dr. Dermish, at the time of the video, either didn’t deliver later gestations via breech (using, instead, a different, legal method), or else was using digoxin to kill them before delivery. In both cases, she would be technically avoiding breaking the partial-birth abortion ban. But it’s also possible — if not probable — that Dr. Dermish is considering which cases she could deliver intact via breech and without digoxin so that she can please the researchers and begin this program. This would mean she was willing to either illegally deliver via partial-birth abortion or even that there may be born-alive cases. Because, after all, an intact baby head can be “something to strive for.”
Planned Parenthood Houston Admits Accounting Gimmicks Hide Baby Parts Sales, Invoices Charge $8,000
Released: February 2, 2016
Illegal Activity: Profiting from “Tissue Donation,” Procedural Alterations
Setting: These are more scenes from the interview with Melissa Farrell, as well as a shot with Melaney Linton, the Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast CEO who affirms that Melissa is the one that will have thoughts on compensation and “will work on all of that with you.”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- Melissa Farrell talks about the “a-la-carte approach” and how to “frame” things properly, including having an overall “administrative fee” as well as a “consent” or “per consent” payment. This totals on a shown invoice from 2010-2011 to over $8,000.
- When reassured of the buyer’s need to make this “financially beneficial,” Farrell says, “I’ll take you up on that, that’s what staff and management need to see, that we aren’t underwriting any projects. I go to great efforts to demonstrate what the…actual cost is…so they know, okay, yes you’re covering costs, there’s margin that’s covering overhead or whatever we need just to make sure everything is covered.”
- Farrell agrees they can “frame it” while making sure “financially you’re growing your clinic” and keeping her happy. They can make it part of the budget, that dissections cost x, and splitting different shipments is x. It’s all just a matter of line items.
- The last slide shows a few flashbacks, including graphic images.
Full Footage is also available (Melaney Linton)
(See Video 5 summary for full footage of Melissa Farrell)
Planned Parenthood Ally NAF Suggests “Group Purchasing Program” for “A Win-Win” Selling Fetal Parts
Released: February 7th, 2016
Illegal Activity: Silencing CMP’s First Amendment Freedoms
Setting: A conversation between the buyer (a woman buyer this time), National Abortion Federation Training and Education Coordinator Sandy Fulkerson, and her colleague, Jennifer Hart. The discussion is having a booth at an exhibit at their conferences advertising this new tissue procurement company.
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- “NAF is seeking a permanent gag-order on The Center for Medical Progress to prevent us from speaking or publishing on any of the occurrences at their annual meetings. What are they hiding?”
- Fulkerson talk about a “group purchasing program” that sounds like a benefit program for members of NAF. Since there are already companies to dispose of the tissue that work with the NAF group members, she says “this would be a really great option to be able to offer our members as well.” The buyer would exhibit at a conference to pitch this to abortion clinics.
- The members would be interested in getting a portion of the money that the procurement company got from the research company. To put it simply, the buyer is a middleman, and the abortion clinic would get a cut of the deal. This is described as a “win-win.”
Full Footage is also available.
Planned Parenthood Orange County Changes Abortions to Harvest Intact Fetuses for Local Company’s Sales
Released: March 1, 2016
Illegal Activity: Procedural Alterations, Profiting from “Tissue Donation”; Possible Intact Cases, Partial-Birth Abortion, and/or Born-Alive Cases
Setting: Dr. Nucatola has referred the undercover “buyers” to Jennefer Russo, the Medical Director at Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, in order to see if she would be interested in selling the fetal tissue to them and not just their other supplier, DaVinci) or their sister company DV Biologics (both companies may be referred to as “DV” herein). An undercover call confirms that Da Vinci Bio has been getting a local supply of fetal tissue and has a large catalogue of fetal “products.”
Most Disturbing Aspects:
- A pricing sheet shows DaVinci’s typical pay out for different baby parts: ½ liver at $350, Thymus at $500, $750 neural [brain] tissue. The sheet shows these charges as separate from the packaging and handling fee.(1) The video asserts that Da Vinci Bio also donates to Planned Parenthood, in addition to apparently paying them for baby body parts.
- Abortions are performed up to 24 weeks at this Planned Parenthood. They say DaVinci Biosciences only takes certain gestations to avoid “dig” – the digoxin that kills a baby still undelivered, but also poisons, and thus ruins, a tissue sample. DV, we learn, takes the whole specimen. Russo says she normally starts using dig at 20 weeks but that there is a shortage, so they aren’t using any digoxin right now. When no sample is dig’d, there is a possibility that they are altering the procedure to obtain intact or mostly intact babies to be sold for tissue research at higher than 20 weeks gestation.
- The buyers say that the money is a way to make sure they get priority over other companies such as DV, Novogenix, or StemExpress, which are the big names in fetal tissue research. Russo responds “Yeah” and asks for his card to follow up. This implies serious competition – and serious profit – is in play.
- Russo says she also converts to breech on ultrasound, meaning they can get as much out whole as possible. (Remember, it is illegal to alter a procedure in order to obtain tissue.)
- Russo says actually getting the whole thoracic cavity out (the chest) intact is rare: “We don’t usually have that much dilation to be able to do that, but when we do, we do…but the calvarium [head] is not intact … most of us have trained to not have fully intact specimens … Even though we use dig, et cetera, but that’s how we were trained … It happens sometimes, but it’s pretty rare. But, we try.”(2)
- Russo suggests that another abortionist’s company, who had said they didn’t want to be involved in tissue procurement, is perhaps saying so because they have their own lab and own procurement process. This suggests that experimenting with fetal tissue may be mainstream in the abortion business.
- An undercover call to DaVinci features a student asking for custom tissue procurement for a University of Texas Southwest study requiring 2nd trimester fetal neural tissue from 18-24 weeks. The woman on the phone asks, “Do you want this to be fresh?…or frozen?” She goes on: “My assumption would be that it is feticide-free considering, you know, we have such a large catalogue of fetal tissue that I believe that would be a requirement for us, in order to have so many, you know, fetal products” This means that they are offering a LOT of non-dig’d samples, meaning they aren’t using this sure-fire way of killing the baby before delivery, instead, keeping tissue pure for research. It also reveals that there is a catalogue of products, which sounds an awful like true sale from, in this case, one research company to a different researcher in college.
Full Footage is also available.
(1) It is not clear on the sheet which Planned Parenthood receives this price sheet. (The video implies it is harvested in Orange County, but the form also includes a confusing out-of-state sales-tax exemption). In the video, Russo says that, normally, DV’s staff comes to get the sample, which would imply no shipping occurred.
(2) In other words, they were trained to avoid controversy and ensure they are crushing up the baby first so there are no illegal born-alive cases and no illegal partial-birth abortions. However, this training and legal restriction comes into conflict with their profit-interest in non-poisoned and intact tissue samples. How much each doctor tries to follow which interest — legal or profit in this case — would be hard to track. But we know that Russo at least says she is trying to get intact samples, even though that’s rare.
Short Video on Hearing and Consent
Planned Parenthood’s Fraudulent “Consent” Form to get Aborted Baby Parts
Released: April 5, 2016
Illegal Activity: Lack of Consent
Setting: New scenes from Dr. Nucatola’s interview joined with scenes from the recent Select Investigative panel on Infant Lives from March 2 expose the fact that women who are being asked to give consent for the harvesting of their fetus’ body parts aren’t being given all the information they need to make an informed decision.
Summary:
- Women are given only ten minutes, by Dr. Nucatola’s estimation, because “They only have so many minutes to talk to the patients,” and it’s “one more thing.”
- We learn “inducements that would ordinarily be acceptable may become undue influences if the subject is especially vulnerable.” Women in this position would certainly qualify.
- The form reads: “Research using the blood from pregnant women and tissue that has been aborted has been used to treat and find a cure for such diseases as diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and AIDS.”
- Nucatola says women respond most to knowing the positive outcomes that come from their “donation,” but the form is fraudulent by admitting that a “cure” has been found for diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Even Dr. Lawrence Goldstein — who defends and donates to Planned Parenthood, is one of their witnesses, and uses fetal brains himself — spoke against the form. He says a form claiming that the cure had already been found would be an “inappropriate statement.”
- Cecile Richards claims that Planned Parenthood has the “highest standards,” which is clearly an overestimation of an organization caught in manipulation.
Additional Videos: Highlight Reels
These highlight reels paste together scenes from the other longer videos to thematically show three themes: That Planned Parenthood is selling baby parts for profit; that Planned Parenthood is altering the abortion procedure in order to harvest baby parts; and that Planned Parenthood doesn’t want you to know the truth and minimizes it.
January 5: PROFIT – Planned Parenthood’s Illicit Moneymaking From Baby Body Parts
January 12: HARVEST – Planned Parenthood’s Custom Abortions For Better Baby Parts
January 19: COVER-UP – Planned Parenthood’s Attempt to Hide Their Baby Body Parts Scheme
CONCLUDING SUMMARY
Planned Parenthood sometimes justifies abortion by saying the baby isn’t really a baby, but then turns around and sells the baby parts which are valuable precisely because of their humanity.
Through prayer and action, CWA asks you to consider fighting Planned Parenthood.
Abortion is a sad and difficult reality in our nation, hurting children and the mothers of those children. CWA remains committed to the sanctity of life. We desire healing and hope and love for every post-abortive woman and abortion clinic worker throughout the nation. We seek prayer for them and for an end to abortion, and urge the passage of a 20-week abortion ban and the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Originally published August 7. 2015. Updated August 13, 2015.