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Secret video reveals 'aborted babies' body parts being sold'
Yahoo US
July 16, 2015, 9:25 am
A hidden camera has revealed a Planned Parenthood official casually discussing disturbing details of a buy-and-sell arrangement for aborted babies' body parts.
The eight-minute clip features Dr Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, at what appears to be a routine business lunch.
The unseen people at her table inquiring about foetal organs are investigators posing as members of a foetal-tissue procurement company.
Filmed and released by a California-based organisation called the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), the video implies Planned Parenthood violates federal law by selling foetal tissue, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison in the US.
The video has clearly been edited together.
Planned Parenthood strongly denies the accusation and the video has been slammed by critics as anti-abortion propaganda.
In a statement, Eric Ferrero, Vice President of Communications, notes that Planned Parenthood donates foetal tissue “to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs,” which is not illegal.
“There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or Planned Parenthood,” the statement reads.
Photo: Center For Medical Progress
The Center for Medical Progress describes themselves as 'a group of citizen journalists dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances concerned about contemporary bioethical issues that impact human dignity... opposing any interventions, procedures, and experiments that exploit the unequal legal status of any class of human beings.'
Representatives from CMP did not respond to request for comment.
The conversation which appears to take place in the video clip - released by CMP in long form on YouTube - is graphic.
When one of the 'investigators' asks about prices, Nucatola replies: “You know, I would throw a number out, I would say it’s probably anywhere from $30 to $100, depending on the facility and what’s involved.”
The fake rep then clarifies: “The $30 to $100 price range, that’s per specimen that we’re talking about, right?”
Nucatola answers: “Per specimen. Yes.”
Planned Parenthood states that the “price range” refers to the cost to donate tissue.
“At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does - with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards,” Ferrero notes.
“In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.”
Planned Parenthood further explains that the accusation of selling foetal body parts is old and unfounded, and that CMP has clear ulterior motives, noting:
“The promotional video mischaracterising Planned Parenthood’s mission and services is made by a long time anti-abortion activist that has used deceptive and unethical video editing, and that has created a fake medical website as well as a fake human tissue website that purports to provide services to stem cell researchers.”
The statement continues, “Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.”
The video has triggered calls to Washington and state capitals for investigations and hearings
