Planned Parenthood Ordered to Answer Questions About its Sale of Aborted Baby Parts

Four Planned Parenthood affiliates have been ordered to produce financial records in order to answer questions about the huge amount of money they received in exchange for the sale of aborted baby parts to tissue procurement companies.

Roughly three years ago, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), Stem Express, and DaVinci BioSciences sued the Center for Medical Progress, and CMP investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, accusing them of over a dozen charges from invasion of privacy to editing and tampering with videos in a misleading manner.

The Center for Medical Progress published undercover investigative videos highlighting the illegal activities that Planned Parenthood and its affiliates employed in order to make a profit off of the sale of aborted baby organs and tissue. Stem Express, a Planned Parenthood affiliate was additionally caught advertising to abortion facilities that the sale of fetal tissue would be “financially profitable” for them. According to the press release put out by the Center for Medical Progress, “this advertisement was endorsed by Dr. Dorothy Furgerson, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte where StemExpress harvested and purchased body parts.” This type of advertising has been shown in other cases to subsequently encourage abortion facilities to illegally alter their abortion procedures to procure better, more “fresh” baby parts.

Other videos released by the Center for Medical Progress feature high-ranking Planned Parenthood employees haggling over prices for fetal specimens as well as describing altering abortion procedures to obtain more intact fetal body parts for tissue procurement agencies. At a business lunch meeting with CMP investigators David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, remarked over wine and salad: “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.” In another video, Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Mary Gatter haggled with undercover investigators over the price per fetal specimen, insisting, “You know in negotiations the person who throws out the figure first is at a loss, right?” and laughing, “I want a Lamborghini.”

The sale or purchase of fetal tissue for profit is a federal felony.

According to Lifenews, the lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and its affiliates backfired when the investigation revealed that the four affiliates most heavily involved in selling aborted baby parts “received monthly payments from fetal tissue marketers but kept no records of their legally allowable costs.” More from Lifenews:

The House Select Panel investigating Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue procurement practices determined that , in practice, the costs were nominal to non-existent.

In the face of this evidence, Planned Parenthood continued to deny that their revenues exceeded their expenses, but flatly refused to explain the discrepancy. Life Legal Defense Foundation then sought an order from Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu of the Northern District of California, compelling the abortion providers to explain themselves.

On Thursday, the court granted the Life Legal’s motion and ordered Planned Parenthood to provide responses by January 31.

“Since the day the first CMP video was released, Planned Parenthood has proclaimed its innocence and insisted it was the victim of a ‘smear’ that it sold baby parts,” said Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director of Life Legal Defense Foundation. “We know money went in, baby parts went out, and costs were negligible. We look forward to Planned Parenthood finally have to explain how that didn’t violate federal law.”