CMP’s Open Letter to Congress in Reply to Planned Parenthood’s Aug. 27 Letter

MEDIA ADIVSORY

Today, The Center for Medical Progress sends an open letter to Congress in reply to Planned Parenthood’s letter of August 27. CMP’s letter highlights serious admissions in Planned Parenthood’s letter, in which Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards seems to admit that her organization receives valuable consideration payments for fetal tissue, changes abortion procedures to get higher quality specimens, and supports and approves these practices at the highest level. The CMP letter is available here.

Deconstructing Planned Parenthood’s Failed “Forensic Analysis” Report

On August 27, Planned Parenthood released what they claimed was a “forensic analysis” report on CMP’s published investigative footage. In reality, the report is a pseudoscientific production by Fusion GPS, a political opposition-research company that has no forensic certifications. While the report, which contains multiple errors, set out to delegitimize CMP’s video evidence, it only provides evidence of the opposite: the report admits that “This analysis did not reveal widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation” and that it “shows no evidence of audio manipulation.

Planned Parenthood’s review of the undercover meetings with Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Dr. Mary Gatter, Dr. Savita Ginde, and Melissa Farrell identifies sections in the full footage of these conversations where bathroom breaks or waiting time between meetings were removed to protect the investigators. The Center for Medical Progress provides original recording files to law enforcement and official investigators, but endeavors to present our findings to the public in the most accessible way possible. This brief will review the specific cuts and other issues raised by the Planned Parenthood report.

Video 1: Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Senior Director of Medical Services, PPFA

The Planned Parenthood report notes that two different camera angles recorded the meeting with Dr. Nucatola. In the full footage of this conversation, the primary camera (Actor 1) is used throughout, until Actor 1 needed to use the restroom at encoded timestamp 14:32:07 (framecount ~038200). At this point, footage from the second camera (Actor 2) is supplemented so viewers can follow the conversation that continued between Dr. Nucatola and Actor 2, while Actor 1 uses the restroom. When Actor 1 returns, the primary camera footage does as well. The timestamp on the primary footage reads 14:37:43 when Actor 1 returns–the approximately 5.5 minute change in timestamp corresponds to the 5.5 minute discussion Actor 2 has alone with Dr. Nucatola.

At 14:38:06, Dr. Nucatola leaves to use the restroom, and returns at 14:41:08. The logistical discussion between the actors is not part of the conversation with Dr. Nucatola and like discussions between only the actors arriving and leaving the meeting, it is not included. Viewers following the conversation between Nucatola and the two actors hear the continuous dialog about using the restroom at these points in the video.

The bathroom breaks and actors’ logistics do not change Dr. Nucatola’s statements, and the brief change of camera footage allows the viewer to see and hear the full conversation with Dr. Nucatola.

Video 2: Dr. Mary Gatter, President of the Planned Parenthood Medical Directors’ Council, PPFA

Again, the Planned Parenthood report attempts to cast aspersions on the investigative footage because of the use of two cameras. In reality, the use of multiple cameras corroborates the scenes recorded and enhances the evidentiary value of the footage. CMP provides law enforcement and official investigators with the original files from all recording devices.

Each actor uses the restroom at the beginning of the meeting with Dr. Mary Gatter. While Actor 2 uses the restroom, Actor 1’s camera documents the beginning of the conversation with Dr. Gatter. When Actor 2 returns to the table and Actor 1 leaves to use the restroom at 12:04:53, the camera changes to Actor 2’s footage, and remains there for the rest of the conversation.

As in Video 1, the continuous dialogue around the camera transition makes it clear there is a bathroom break.

Video 3: Dr. Savita Ginde, VP and Medical Director, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

The actors spent almost an entire work day at the Planned Parenthood facility shown in this video, with only a fraction of that time spent in conversation with Dr. Ginde. The full footage of their conversation with Dr. Ginde begins in a conference room meeting with her, and this conversation continues until the Planned Parenthood staff break for lunch at timestamp 10:27:07. The actors were not taken into the path lab until after abortions began and Planned Parenthood was making fetal tissue available for review at timestamp 11:01:40. The actors recorded several periods of “down-time” between abortion cases where they were alone in the path lab or in break rooms discussing logistics. Again, bathroom breaks and logistical discussions between only the actors are only presented to law enforcement and official investigators in order to protect the actors.

At 11:45:46, the Planned Parenthood so-called “forensic report” erroneously identifies a stop in the recording device. Dr. Ginde leaves the actors alone in a waiting room, and so the conversation footage resumes when Dr. Ginde returns for the one of the actors at timestamp 12:21:55.

Planned Parenthood also takes issue with two statements recorded in the dialogue: first, Dr. Ginde’s sad remark over a dismembered 11.6-week fetus that, “It’s a baby,” and second, the medical assistant’s excited exclamation that a 10-week aborted fetus is “another boy.” The Planned Parenthood report does not mark out by timestamp or framecount exactly where these statements occur in the recording, but only gives vague estimates of where they occur in the video run-time.

While the first remark from Dr. Ginde, at timestamp 11:05:07, is faint, careful listening makes the dialogue clear beginning at 11:04:52:

Actor 1: “Was that crack, was that the, just the little bits of the skull?”
Medical Assistant: “Mhm. I’m looking for–I guess we’re missing one leg. And a foot.”
Dr. Ginde: “It’s a baby.”

Dr. Ginde’s distinctive voice can be heard after the Medical Assitant references the leg and the foot of the baby, murmuring in a low, despondent tone, “It’s a baby,” and the bilabial “B” sound can be heard clearly at the end of the phrase. This is consistent with other remarks made by Dr. Ginde during the site visit, including her description of a 12-week aborted fetus at timestamp 13:54:50 as “war-torn.” The Medical Assistant also referred to the aborted 11.6 fetus as “cute” at 11:04:31, which elicited an inaudible response from Ginde.

At timestamp 14:08:29, the Planned Parenthood Medical Assistant exclaims, “And another boy!” when examining a 10-week aborted fetus. This same Medical Assistant referred to an 11.6-week aborted fetus as “cute,” frequently described looking for fetal extremities as “legs” and “feet,” and was also looking for “twins” in several of the abortion cases. The sex of fetuses was never brought up by the actors.

It is significant that Planned Parenthood singles these two statements out for special scrutiny: they are admissions from Planned Parenthood abortion workers about the violence inherent in their work. But the way the report focuses on them while simultaneously refusing to precisely flag them seems to indicate Planned Parenthood also has a guilty conscience for child-killing.

Video 4: Melissa Farrell, Director of Research, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast

The Planned Parenthood report identifies a missing recording file from timestamp 07:46:47 to 08:15:15. This was due solely to human error, as the missing file, which begins at timestamp 07:46:48 and ends at 08:15:13, includes several key admissions from Farrell about PPGC’s arbitrary budgeting practices for tissue collection charges and willingness to modify abortion procedures to get more intact specimens (which even Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards has admitted). The missing clip has been supplemented here.

From 8:44:26 to 8:48:39 (mistakenly notated in the Planned Parenthood report as 8:44:39), Actor 1 uses the restroom while Farrell leaves the room to grab documents off of the printer. This is clear from the dialogue. Actor 2 also left to use the restroom during the same time. At 12:58:34, Farrell led the actors to a break room, and actors took the time to swap out recording equipment batteries and discuss logistics with each other. Farrell returns to take the actors to the clinic’s path lab at 13:50:18.

The Planned Parenthood report erroneously cites a clip of a “credit card” at 13:11:59 for the Farrell video, which is actually from the Gatter video.

Conclusion:

The Planned Parenthood report contains multiple erroneous statements and conclusions, yet by its own words finds no “substantive video manipulation” and “no evidence of audio manipulation.” CMP’s investigative video recordings are high-quality and reproducible evidence that can be provided to law enforcement and official investigators in original recording format.

 

CMP Statement on Planned Parenthood’s Criminal Admissions in CEO Letter to Congress

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards makes two key admissions today in Planned Parenthood’s letter to Congress: that Planned Parenthood gets paid $60 per baby body part harvested, and that Planned Parenthood doctors alter their abortion procedures to get higher-quality body parts. Both of these admissions speak to Planned Parenthood’s financial benefit and profit motive for supplying fetal tissue, and both are the points CMP’s videos have documented and illustrated from the very beginning. When a Tissue Procurement Organization handles all dissection, packaging, and shipping of fetal organs, and all Planned Parenthood does is spend 10 minutes consenting a patient, the $60 per body part harvested quickly adds up to illegal baby parts profit for Planned Parenthood. And when a Planned Parenthood doctor manipulates the abortion to get higher-quality baby parts, they are prizing Planned Parenthood’s financial interests ahead of women’s health.

CMP Statement on Planned Parenthood’s Failed “Analysis” of Videos

Planned Parenthood’s desperate, 11th-hour attempt to pay their hand-picked “experts” to distract from the crimes documented on video is a complete failure. The absence of bathroom breaks and waiting periods between meetings does not change the hours of dialogue with top-level Planned Parenthood executives eager to manipulate abortion procedures to get high-quality baby parts for financially profitable sale. While even Planned Parenthood’s “experts” found “no evidence of audio manipulation” in the recordings, it is telling that Planned Parenthood is trying so hard to pretend that their staff did not refer to a dismembered fetus as “a baby” and “another boy.” Planned Parenthood’s abortion providers are far more honest about the brutal reality of their work than the paid political consultants at the national office. If Planned Parenthood really wants to disprove the now-overwhelming body of evidence that their affiliates traffick in baby body parts, they should release their fetal tissue contracts with the for-profit company StemExpress for law enforcement, Congress, and all the world to see.

Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Buyer StemExpress Wants “Another 50 Livers/Week,” Financial Benefits for Abortion Clinics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

#PPSellsBabyParts PLANNED PARENTHOOD BABY PARTS BUYER STEMEXPRESS WANTS “ANOTHER 50 LIVERS/WEEK,” FINANCIAL BENEFITS FOR ABORTION CLINICS
Cate Dyer, CEO of StemExpress, LLC Partnered with Planned Parenthood since 2010, Says Company Gets “A Lot” of Intact Fetuses, Calls Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Supply a “Volume Institution”

Contact: Matille Thebolt, mthebolt@crcpublicrelations.com, 571.501.4067

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 25–The eighth video in the ongoing controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal body parts shows the CEO of StemExpress, LLC, a major buyer of fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, admitting the company gets “a lot” of intact fetuses, suggesting “another 50 livers a week” would not be enough, and agreeing abortion clinics should profit from the sale: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2015/08/planned-parenthood-baby-parts-buyer-stemexpress-wants-another-50-liversweek-financial-benefits-for-abortion-clinics/

StemExpress is a for-profit biotech supply company that has been partnered with Planned Parenthood clinics across the country to purchase human fetal parts since its founding in 2010. StemExpress’ Medical Director, Dr. Ronald Berman, is an abortion doctor for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

In the video, actors posing as another human biologics company meet with StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer, plus Vice President of Corporate Development and Legal Affairs Kevin Cooksy, and Procurement Manager Megan Barr. StemExpress and the actors are discussing a potential partnership to supply extra fetal body parts to each other.

So many physicians are like, ‘Oh I can totally procure tissue,’ and they can’t,” expresses Dyer, seeming to indicate that abortion doctors must do the procedure in a special way to obtain useable fetal parts. Federal law requires that no alteration in the timing or method of abortion be done for the purposes of fetal tissue collection (42 U.S.C. 289g-1).

“What about intact specimens?” asks one of the actors. “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,” replies Dyer. “Case” is the clinical term for an abortion procedure. An “intact case” refers to an intact abortion with a whole fetus. “The entire case?” asks an actor. “Yeah, yeah,” says Dyer. “The procurement for us, I mean it can go really sideways, depending on the facility, and then our samples are destroyed,” she explains past botched fetal dissections, “so we started bringing them back even to manage it from a procurement expert standpoint.

Feticidal chemicals like digoxin cannot be used to kill the fetus in a tissue procurement case, so a fetus delivered intact for organ harvesting is likely to be a born-alive infant.

“What would make your lab happy?” asks one of the actors. “Another 50 livers a week,” says Dyer. “We’re working with almost like triple digit number clinics,” Dyer explains, “and we still need more.” She later notes, “Planned Parenthood has volume, because they are a volume institution.

Dyer also agrees that payments to abortion clinics for fetal body parts should be financially beneficial to them. “Do you feel like there are clinics out there that have been burned, that feel like they’re doing all this work for research and it hasn’t been profitable for them?” she asks. “I haven’t seen that.” StemExpress publishes a flyer for Planned Parenthood clinics that promises “Financial Profits” and “fiscal rewards” for clinics that supply aborted fetal tissue. It is endorsed by Planned Parenthood Mar Monte Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dorothy Furgerson: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/StemExpress-flyer.pdf

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). The Sacramento Business Journal reported in June that StemExpress has an annual revenue of $4.5 million.

The video is the eighth released by The Center for Medical Progress in its investigative journalism study of Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby parts. “StemExpress is the ‘weakest link’ that unravels Planned Parenthood’s baby parts chain–they readily admit the profit-motive that Planned Parenthood and their proxies have in supplying aborted baby parts,” notes David Daleiden, Project Lead for CMP. “Congress and law enforcement should immediately seize all fetal tissue files from StemExpress and all communications and contracts with Planned Parenthood. The evidence that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of aborted baby parts is now overwhelming, and not one more dime of taxpayer money should go to their corrupt and fraudulent criminal enterprise.”

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See the video at: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2015/08/planned-parenthood-baby-parts-buyer-stemexpress-wants-another-50-liversweek-financial-benefits-for-abortion-clinics/

Tweet: #PPSellsBabyParts

For more information on the Human Capital project, visit centerformedicalprogress.org.

The Center for Medical Progress is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances.

Preview Quotes from Video of Planned Parenthood Baby Parts Partner StemExpress

MEDIA ADVISORY

Today, the TRO preventing the release of footage from an undercover business dinner meeting with the top leadership of StemExpress, Planned Parenthood’s recent partner for selling baby parts, was dissolved. The following are several significant quotes from the transcript of that conversation. The video, full conversation footage, and transcript will be published shortly:

1) StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer admits that StemExpress gets intact fetuses from the abortion clinics they work with shipped to their laboratory. “Case” is the clinical term for an individual abortion (cross reference with Planned Parenthood Senior Director of Medical Services Dr.  Deborah Nucatola’s discussion of “this case, that case” in lunch video), so an “intact case” means an “intact abortion.”:

SE: Realistically, if we were to do an agreement with you, what do we think you could get?
Buyer: Volume-wise?
SE: On specifically liver tissue, because that’s such an area of demand for us.
Buyer: So liver, and what about intact specimens, just—?
SE: Oh, yeah, I mean if you had intact cases, which we’ve done a lot, we sometimes ship those back to our lab in its entirety.
Buyer: Okay.
SE: So that would also be great if you guys have those.
Buyer: The entire case.
SE: Yeah, yeah. Because it’s just, and the procurement for us, I mean it can go really sideways, depending on the facility, and then our samples are destroyed, and we’re like, “Really?” This was all so much work, and then just to have them be destroyed is awful. I mean we have researchers wait forever, and they want certain things, you know, perfectly done, so we started bringing them back even to manage it from a procurement expert standpoint.

2) Cate Dyer says that some of the abortion clinics StemExpress works with have unsanitary conditions:

SE: We’ll do testing on our side, so we’ll be able to see, you know. And sometimes we’ll find that it can be clinic-specific. I’ve seen really rampant, rampant problems with bacteria in certain clinics. [laughter] Some where you’re kind of in question of should they really, you know, [laughing]
Buyer: Right.
SE: I’ve seen staph come out of clinics.
Buyer: Wow.
SE: So, I mean, I’ve seen all sorts of things come out of clinics, so.

3) Cate Dyer estimates StemExpress is working with nearly 100 abortion clinics nationwide, and still can’t get enough fetal liver:
 

Buyer: What would make your lab happy? What would make your lab happy?
SE: Another fifty livers a week.
Buyer: Ok, so you can handle that?
SE: Yea. Just so you guys know, on the collection side for us, we’re also- as you see Megan out there in the clinic, we’re working with almost triple digit number clinics. So, it’s a lot on volume a little more than what we do. It’s a lot. So, I don’t think you’ll hit a capacity with us anytime in the next ten years. I think you’ll feel solid with that standpoint. So, I think, with that you’ll feel like doing an agreement with us. It will be consistant growth and our growth has been consistent, and it’s going to continue to grow from that standpoint.

 
4) Cate Dyer laughs and jokes about researchers being squeamish about receiving baby parts in the mail:

SE: As you probably know, one of the issues with neural tissue, it’s so fragile. It’s insanely fragile. And I don’t even know—I was gonna say, I know we get requests for neural, it’s the hardest thing in the world to ship.
Buyer: You do it as the whole calvarium.
SE: Yeah, that’s the easiest way. And we’ve actually had good success with that.
Buyer: Make sure the eyes are closed!
SE: Yeah! [laughter] Tell the lab it’s coming!
Buyer: Yeah.
SE: They’ll open the box, go, ”Oh God!” [laughter] So yeah, so many of the academic labs cannot fly like that, they’re not capable.
Buyer: Why is that? I don’t understand that.
SE: It’s almost like they don’t want to know where it comes from. I can see that. Where they’re like, “We need limbs, but no hands and feet need to be attached.” And you’re like, ? Or they want long bones, and they want you to take it all off, like, make it so that we don’t know what it is.
Buyer: Bone the chicken for me and then we’ll—
SE: That’s it.
Buyer: And then I’ll eat it, but.
SE: But we know what it is. I mean, [laughter], but their lab.
Buyer: But then it goes to that whole stigma.
SE: Oh yeah. And their lab techs freak out, and have meltdowns, and so it’s just like, yeah. I think, quite frankly, that’s why a lot of researchers ultimately, some of them  want to get into other things. They want to look at bone marrow, they want to look at adipose- sort of adult human, kind of adult based sampling. They want to avoid publishing a paper that says it was derived from fetal tissue.

5) Cate Dyer says StemExpress has a good relationship with Planned Parenthood leadership:

Buyer: Do you feel that support from Cecile [Richards] and from Deborah [Nucatola]?
SE: Yea, oh yea. You know, everyone at PPFA. I just think that you’re in the cause or you’re not. If you’re not in the cause, they don’t need you around. They need champions and if you’re not a champion, then you should go.  That’s just- I don’t know, the clinics are very guarded, as they should be. Who do they let in their house, they let champions in their house. Right? I think it’s that same concept and ABR has just never understood that. 

6) Cate Dyer believes the breakdown of how many independent vs. Planned Parenthood clinics that StemExpress is working with could be split about 50-50:

Buyer: Are you seeing any trends between the independents versus Planned Parenthoods? Your breakdown right now, are things split pretty fifty-fifty?
SE: I think it probably is. I don’t know- it is different. I don’t think that one has more pro’s or con’s than the other. I mean, Planned Parenthood has volume, because they are a volume institution.

Human Capital – Episode 3: Planned Parenthood’s Custom Abortions for Superior Product

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

#PPSellsBabyParts PLANNED PARENTHOOD ABORTED BABY’S HEART STILL BEATING IN LATE-TERM ORGAN HARVESTING CASE
Whistleblower Who Harvested Aborted Baby Parts Inside Planned Parenthood Clinics for StemExpress Describes “Most Difficult Experience I Had There” In Latest Documentary Episode

Contact: Peter Robbio, probbio@crcpublicrelations.com, 703.683.5004

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19–The third episode in a new documentary web series and 7th video on Planned Parenthood’s supply of aborted fetal tissue tells a former procurement technician’s harrowing story of harvesting an intact brain from a late-term male fetus whose heart was still beating after the abortion.

The “Human Capital” documentary web series, produced by The Center for Medical Progress, integrates expert interviews, eyewitness accounts, and real-life undercover interactions to explore different themes within Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal tissue. Episode 3, “Planned Parenthood’s Custom Abortions for Superior Product,” launches today at: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2015/08/human-capital-episode-3-planned-parenthoods-custom-abortions-for-superior-product/

The series focuses on the personal narrative of Holly O’Donnell, a former Blood and Tissue Procurement Technician for StemExpress, a biotech start-up that until last week was partnered with two large northern California Planned Parenthood affiliates to purchase their aborted fetus parts and resell them for scientific experimentation.

O’Donnell describes the harvesting, or “procurement,” of organs from a nearly intact late-term fetus aborted at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte’s Alameda clinic in San Jose, CA. “‘I want to see something kind of cool,’” O’Donnell says her supervisor asked her. “And she just taps the heart, and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus, and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.

The San Jose Planned Parenthood does abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Referring to the beating heart of the aborted fetus, O’Donnell remarks, “I don’t know if that constitutes it’s technically dead, or it’s alive.

State and federal law require that the same treatment be given to an infant born-alive after an abortion as to a normally delivered baby (1 U.S.C. 8, CA Health and Safety Code 123435). California law also prohibits any kind of experimentation on a fetus with a discernible heartbeat (CA Health and Safety Code 123440). StemExpress has been cited in published scientific literature as a source of fetal hearts used for Langendorff perfusion, which keeps a heart beating after it is excised from the body: http://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2015/730683/

O’Donnell also tells how her StemExpress supervisor instructed her to cut through the face of the fetus in order to get the brain. “She gave me the scissors and told me that I had to cut down the middle of the face. I can’t even describe what that feels like,” she says.

The video also features recordings of Dr. Ben Van Handel, the Executive Director of Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, and also of Perrin Larton, Procurement Manager of Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR). Novogenix is the company that has harvested fetal organs from abortions done by Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, in Los Angeles, while ABR is the oldest fetal tissue procurement company and works with Planned Parenthood in San Diego and other clinics around the country. Van Handel admits, “There are times when after the procedure is done that the heart actually is still beating,” and Larton describes abortions she has seen where “the fetus was already in the vaginal canal whenever we put her in the stirrups, it just fell out.

CMP’s Project Lead David Daleiden notes, “Today’s video contains heartrending admissions about the absolute barbarism of Planned Parenthood’s abortion practice and baby parts sales in which fetuses are sometimes delivered intact and alive. Planned Parenthood is a criminal organization from the top down and should be immediately stripped of taxpayer funding and prosecuted for their atrocities against humanity.”

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See the video at: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2015/08/human-capital-episode-3-planned-parenthoods-custom-abortions-for-superior-product/

Tweet: #PPSellsBabyParts

For more information on the Human Capital project, visit centerformedicalprogress.org.

The Center for Medical Progress is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances.

 

CMP Statement on Alleged “Split” Between Planned Parenthood and StemExpress

Earlier this week, the CEO of Planned Parenthood Northern California said they were “proud of” their baby parts program with StemExpress (http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/08/09/northern-california-planned-parenthood-counters-anti-abortion-groups-undercover-videos/). Now, StemExpress claims it is terminating its “business relationship” with Planned Parenthood (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/08/planned-parenthood-fetal-tissue-company-cuts-ties-videos-121371.html). Yet StemExpress leadership confirmed to CMP investigators in May they are struggling to meet demand for intact fetal livers. Was there a dispute about money with Planned Parenthood? Or is StemExpress following orders from Planned Parenthood National to save face? Does Planned Parenthood abortion doctor Ronald Berman continue to serve as Medical Director of StemExpress? Planned Parenthood and StemExpress should both answer questions about this shady move, and the full details of their “business relationship,” under oath before Congress and the American people.

Human Capital – Episode 2: Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

#PPSellsBabyParts PLANNED PARENTHOOD SOLD BABY PARTS WITHOUT PATIENT CONSENT, SAYS FORMER TISSUE TECH
Whistleblower Who Harvested Aborted Baby Parts Inside Planned Parenthood Clinics for Partner Company StemExpress Lists Numerous Law and Ethics Violations in New Documentary Episode

Contact: Peter Robbio, probbio@crcpublicrelations.com, 703.683.5004

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12–The second episode in a new documentary web series highlights a young woman’s eyewitness narrative of the daily practice of fetal body parts harvesting in Planned Parenthood abortion clinics, describing tissue procurement workers’ coordination with abortion providers, the pressure placed on patients, and disregard for patient consent.

The “Human Capital” documentary web series, produced by The Center for Medical Progress, integrates expert interviews, eyewitness accounts, and real-life undercover interactions to explore various themes connected to Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal tissue. Episode 1, “Planned Parenthood’s Black Market in Baby Parts,” premiered last month. Episode 2, “Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site,” launches today at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABzFZM73o8M

The series follows the personal narrative of Holly O’Donnell, a former Blood and TIssue Procurement Technician for StemExpress, a start-up biotech company from northern California that partners with Planned Parenthood clinics to purchase their aborted fetus parts and resell them for scientific experimentation. As a procurement tech, O’Donnell’s job was to identify pregnant patients matching the specifications of StemExpress customers and to harvest the fetal body parts from their abortions.

It’s not an option, it’s a demand,” StemExpress supervisors instructed O’Donnell about approaching pregnant women at Planned Parenthood for fetal tissue “donations.” O’Donnell says the StemExpress techs working in Planned Parenthood clinics sometimes harvested fetal parts without obtaining consent from the patients: “If there was a higher gestation, and the technicians needed it, there were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don’t know. And there’s no way they would know.

Federal laws on the procurement and use of human fetal tissue require that patients consent to the tissue donation subsequent to consenting to the abortion procedure (42 U.S.C. 289g-1).

According to O’Donnell, Planned Parenthood gave StemExpress workers access to patient records and schedules so that the harvesting company could plan for the days when patient “supply” would be greatest. “They give you a sheet, and it’s everybody for that day, who’s coming in for an ultrasound, who’s coming in for an abortion, medical or a late-term abortion,” O’Donnell explains. Even patients just seeking a pregnancy test at Planned Parenthood were considered part of the supply: “Pregnancy tests are potential pregnancies, therefore potential specimens. So it’s just taking advantage of the opportunities.

Project Lead David Daleiden notes, “Experiences like Holly O’Donnell’s show that Planned Parenthood’s abortion and baby parts business is not a safe place where vulnerable women can be cared for, but a harvesting ground for saleable human ‘product.’ Taxpayer subsidies to Planned Parenthood’s barbaric abortion business should be revoked immediately, and law enforcement and other elected officials must act decisively to determine the full extent of Planned Parenthood’s offensive practices and hold them accountable to the law.”

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See the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABzFZM73o8M

Tweet: #PPSellsBabyParts

For more information on the Human Capital project, visit centerformedicalprogress.org.

The Center for Medical Progress is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances.

“Intact Fetal Cadavers” At 20-Weeks “Just a Matter of Line Items” at Planned Parenthood TX Mega-Center: Abortion Docs Can “Make it Happen”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

#PPSellsBabyParts “INTACT FETAL CADAVERS” AT 20-WEEKS “JUST A MATTER OF LINE ITEMS” AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD TX MEGA-CENTER: ABORTION DOCS CAN “MAKE IT HAPPEN”
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Director of Research Says Department Contributes Significantly to Bottom Line, Has History of Selling Aborted Fetal Tissue, Suggests “Splitting the Specimens into Different Shipments” to Hide Profit in 5th Undercover Video

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

HOUSTON, Aug. 4–The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch’s track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact fetuses.

In the video, actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company meet with Farrell at the abortion-clinic headquarters of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston to discuss a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs.

Where we probably have an edge over other organizations, our organization has been doing research for many many years,” explains Farrell. When researchers need a specific part from the aborted fetus, Farrell says, “We bake that into our contract, and our protocol, that we follow this, so we deviate from our standard in order to do that.

Asked specifically if this means Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast can change abortion procedures to supply intact fetal specimens, Farrell affirms, “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.

The investigators ask Farrell how she will frame a contract in which they pay a higher price for higher quality fetal body parts, and she replies, “We can work it out in the context of–obviously, the procedure itself is more complicated,” suggesting that “without having you cover the procedural cost” and paying for the abortion, the higher specimen price could be framed as “additional time, cost, administrative burden.

Farrell finally summarizes her affiliate’s approach to fetal tissue payments: “If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. It’s all just a matter of line items.

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). Federal law also requires that no alteration in the timing or method of abortion be done for the purposes of fetal tissue collection (42 U.S.C. 289g-1).

Farrell also indicates to the investigators over lunch that the specimen sales from her department contribute significantly to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s overall finances: “I think everyone realizes, especially because my department contributes so much to the bottom line of our organization here, you know we’re one of the largest affiliates, our Research Department is the largest in the United States. Larger than any the other affiliates’ combined.” In a Texas Senate hearing on July 29, former Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast clinic director Abby Johnson estimated that the affiliate had previously made up to $120,000 per month off of aborted fetal tissue.

The video is the fifth by The Center for Medical Progress documenting Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted fetal parts. Project Lead David Daleiden notes: “This is now the fifth member of Planned Parenthood leadership discussing payments for aborted baby parts without any connection to actual costs of so-called tissue ‘donation.’ Planned Parenthood’s system-wide conspiracy to evade the law and make money off of aborted fetal tissue is now undeniable.” Daleiden continues, “Anyone who watches these videos knows that Planned Parenthood is engaged in barbaric practices and human rights abuses that must end. There is no reason for an organization that uses illegal abortion methods to sell baby parts and commit such atrocities against humanity to still receive over $500 million each year from taxpayers.”

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See the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egGUEvY7CEg

Tweet: #PPSellsBabyParts

For more information on the Human Capital project, visit centerformedicalprogress.org.

The Center for Medical Progress is a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances.