Planned Parenthood Sues
Undercover Video Makers
by STEVE BYAS
SEE: http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/health-care/item/22341-planned-parenthood-sues-undercover-video-makers; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Planned Parenthood took a major hit in 2015 with the release by the anti-abortion organization the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) of several undercover videos in which officials of the abortion provider discussed with actors hired by CMP the sale of aborted babies' body parts.
Now Planned Parenthood is striking back with a lawsuit against CMP.
Filed in federal district court in San Francisco, the suit charges that officials from CMP — who set up a fake biomedical research company called Biomax Procurement Services to enable actors to pose as buyers of fetal tissue and secretly videotape conversations with Planned Parenthood officials — engaged in a three-year “complex criminal enterprise.”
Many have noted that the selection of the San Francisco district court, well known for its liberal decisions, was no doubt intentional.
In the first undercover video by CMP, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services, is videotaped stating that Planned Parenthood regularly sells body parts of aborted babies. In a second video, another abortionist is caught discussing the sale of aborted baby body parts. In it, Mary Gatter, medical director of the Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley (California) Planned Parenthood affiliate, is seen in discussion with undercover investigators who posed as officials with the biotech company that was said to serve as a middleman to sell aborted baby parts to universities and other research facilities.
The prices of the body parts are open to negotiation, Gatter explained to the investigators. Among the parts mentioned were liver, head, and heart. She also explained, as did Dr. Nucatola in the first video, that the abortion procedure itself could be modified to save the selected body parts.
Dr. Nucatola had told the actors that obtaining choice body parts could easily be accomplished; she simply needed to know beforehand what specific parts buyers wanted. “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that," she explained, "so I am not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
Facing intense criticism and adverse publicity, and even threats of congressional action, Planned Parenthood officials defended their organization’s grisly practices. Cecile Richards, daughter of former Texas Governor Ann Richards and CEO of Planned Parenthood, attempted to mitigate the bad publicity created by the videos, apologizing for the “tone” of Dr. Nucatola, who casually spoke to the undercover investigators of the sale of body parts while sipping wine in a restaurant. Richards then condemned the investigators, claiming the videos were “heavily edited.”
Labelling the videos “heavily edited” to produce a different impression from the facts became the standard talking point of Planned Parenthood and its defenders in the political world and mainstream media.
Named as defendants in the Planned Parenthood lawsuit are the Center for Medical Progress; its director, David Daleiden (an actor in the videos); Troy Newman, the head of Operation Rescue (who is accused of helping plan the operation); and others who played roles in the fictitious biomedical research company.
“The people behind this fraud lied and broke the law in order to spread malicious lies about Planned Parenthood,” claimed Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “We filed the case to hold them accountable.”
Planned Parenthood officials have argued that any transfer of baby parts was done legally, with the permission of the women who had their unborn children aborted.
In a written statement, the CMP called the lawsuit "frivolous," accusing Planned Parenthood of filing the suit “in retaliation for CMP’s First Amendment investigative journalism that has done nothing more than tell the truth about Planned Parenthood’s lawless operations.”
Planned Parenthood's lawsuit charges that the defendants claimed to be a company that was a legitimate provider of fetal tissue to researchers, using fake identities, and violating nondisclosure agreements by wearing hidden cameras and recording hundreds of hours of conversations.
Planned Parenthood seeks restitution of actual costs, punitive damages, and triple damages under the civil racketeering laws, for what it asserts are civil violations of conspiracy laws, state privacy laws, and other statutes.
After the release of the videos, several members of Congress threatened to cut off all federal funding to Planned Parenthood. While Congress has not directly funded abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country, it has provided federal funds for non-abortion activities (such as breast cancer screenings) at clinics. Many pro-lifers point out that this frees up more Planned Parenthood money to perform abortions.
After the undercover videos were made public, Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) spoke emotionally on the floor of the Senate, declaring, “That’s a human being we’re talking about. It doesn’t bring any comfort to know that one child is torn apart so maybe they can do research on the child’s organs.”
However, despite such strong rhetoric, Lankford joined with many other Republicans in both houses of Congress for a $1.1-trillion omnibus budget that still provides taxpayer dollars for Planned Parenthood.
Many Americans have expressed outrage at what they considered the hypocrisy and impotence of the Republican Party on Capitol Hill. As one example, Billy Graham's son Franklin publicly resigned from the Republican Party and declared himself to now be an Independent, explaining,
After all the appalling facts revealed this year about Planned Parenthood, our representatives in Washington had a chance to put a stop to this, but they didn’t. There’s no question — taxpayers should not be paying for abortions. Abortion is murder in God’s eyes. Seeing and hearing Planned Parenthood talk nonchalantly about selling baby parts from aborted fetuses with utter disregard for human life is reminiscent of Joseph Mengele and the Nazi concentration camps!
But the current controversy should raise another question in the minds of all Americans: If the gruesome practice of selling the body parts of aborted pre-born babies is so repulsive that it must not be tolerated, why is the practice of abortion itself tolerated? Is it somehow less repugnant to kill innocent human life via abortion than it is to harvest body parts form the aborted babies?
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BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes
WASHINGTON — The abortion giant Planned Parenthood has sued the group who recorded and released a series of undercover videos regarding the organization’s alleged harvesting and sale of the bodily organs of aborted babies.As previously reported, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released nearly a dozen videos last year in its “Human Capital” series, after it had posed undercover as a fetal tissue procurement company to see what representatives of Planned Parenthood might say about its practices.The first video featured Planned Parenthood Medical Director Deborah Nucatola, who nonchalantly munches on salad and sips wine as she talks about adjusting the child so as not to crush certain organs due to the demand for the body part.“I’d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps,” she explains. “[Y]ou’re just kind of cognizant where you put your graspers. You try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that—-you know. We’ve been very good at getting the 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.’”The second video showed Mary Gatter, the president of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Directors Council, haggling with undercover investigators about the compensation for the fetal organs, laughing, “I want a Lamborghini.” Other footage showed an actual aborted baby being dissected in a dish, with an assistant declaring, “Another boy!” and another video showed an abortionist laughing about how harvesting an intact baby head would be “something to strive for.”Holly O’Donnell, a former procurement technician with StemExpress, which broke its ties with Planned Parenthood after the videos were released, explained in one video how she was asked to help harvest a brain for StemExpress. She provided gruesome details of how she cut up the baby’s face to get to the brain, all the while the child’s heart was beating.But Planned Parenthood claims that the videos are false and were meant to “smear” the abortion giant.“This case is about a network of anti-abortion extremists and the laws they broke in order to spread lies and harm Planned Parenthood,” Dawn Laguens, vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America told reporters. “This entire smear campaign is a fraud built on illegal acts and a web of lies.”The organization is accusing CMP of violation of privacy, fraudulent misrepresentation, breach of contract and trespassing, among other “crimes.”While some state that the videos released by the group were heavily edited, CMP also posted the complete hours-long videos on YouTube for those who wanted to watch more than just the highlights of the discussions. CMP welcomed the suit in a statement on Thursday.“Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the United States Congress and multiple law enforcement agencies, while their business is drying up and the public is turning against their barbaric abortion for baby parts trade. Now they are filing a frivolous lawsuit in retaliation for CMP’s First Amendment investigative journalism that has done nothing more than tell the truth about Planned Parenthood’s lawless operations,” it said.“This last-ditch move of desperation is going to expose all of the sordid dealings of the California Planned Parenthood affiliates to the light of the legal system and the public will see them for the corrupt abortion and baby body parts profiteers that they really are,” CMP added.________________________________________________________Planned Parenthood Launches 2016 $20 Million Campaign Against Pro-Life Candidates: ‘You’re About to Be in For a Very Rude Awakening’
BY DR. SUSAN BERRYrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposesPlanned Parenthood is warning all candidates who hope to win elections in 2016 that if they are not supportive of abortion on demand, they will have to deal with the nation’s largest abortion provider and its new $20 million campaign.Extremists are on notice from @CecileRichards. Take an extreme position on#ReproHealth, you are #NotMyCandidate https://t.co/vTy0K1jKLh— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) November 17, 2015“Today we have a clear message for every politician who has threatened access to reproductive health care,” executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) Dawn Laguens said in a statement announcing the “I Vote Planned Parenthood Action” campaign. “You’re about to be in for a very rude awakening.”Demonstrating the strong alliance between the militant pro-abortion and LGBT agendas, Laguens continues to seek out the support of minority and low-income voters:You cannot embrace policies that dismiss the lives of women, of the LGBTQ community, of people of color, of low-income families, of young people, and expect to be elected by the American people. We’ve already seen millions across the country rise up against attacks on reproductive health care, and now, with the launch of I Vote Planned Parenthood Action, we’re getting organized. Make no mistake — the fight for 2016 starts today.Still reeling from a series of undercover videos exposing the abortion business’ apparent practices of selling the body parts of unborn babies on the open market and altering the position of babies during abortions in order to harvest their intact organs, Planned Parenthood has been on defense over the past several months. Various congressional committees have been investigating the organization since the release of the videos, and a new House Select Panel has been formed to probe further into Planned Parenthood’s practices.The group that claims abortion is “women’s healthcare,” however, is being helped by its close Democrat Party allies, some of whom have been appointed by House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the special investigative panel.As Breitbart News reported earlier in November, the six Democrats appointed to the panel have received thousands of dollars in total campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood itself, as well as abortion lobbying groups EMILY’s List and NARAL.In a statement to Breitbart News, Rep. Diane Black (R-TN a GOP member of the House Select Panel probing Planned Parenthood – said, “We should not be surprised that Planned Parenthood would try to stack the deck with politicians who will look the other way when the organization faces legal and ethical turmoil.”In the new video to launch Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s 2016 campaign, president Cecile Richards asserts:Extremists made the 2016 election about attacking reproductive rights.Enough is enough. With our supporters, we’re launching “I Vote Planned Parenthood Action.” We’ll organize and mobilize to elect lawmakers who are in our corner.And politicians who side with these extremists, you are NOT my candidate.We’re paying attention and we VOTE.As CNN reports, Planned Parenthood is planning to spend at least $20 million fighting pro-life candidates in 2016.“I have no doubt they will spend big to prop up candidates who support their position of abortion on demand, at any moment in pregnancy, funded off the backs of American taxpayers,” Black added. “We in the pro-life movement, and more broadly, Americans who understand abortion is simply not ‘health care,’ must be equally prepared to fight back with the truth.”For Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America – the nation’s largest organization of pro-life youth – Planned Parenthood’s announcement of the amount it will spend on its new campaign reeks of hypocrisy.“So Planned Parenthood is crying ‘poor me, don’t take my federal money’ when they are planning to spend upwards of $20 million this election cycle?” Hawkins tells Breitbart News.“That’s almost laughable if it weren’t true,” she adds. “Why not put that money into their supposed healthcare facilities and help poor women obtain so-called ‘quality healthcare’? Or why not comply with state laws that demand abortion facilities operate within the same standards as other surgical facilities, or widen their hallways for the inevitable emergency, instead of whining about closing their doors?”Planned Parenthood’s campaign will supposedly include “grassroots forums taking place across the country, where key volunteers and supporters will come together to discuss a policy agenda and make plans for holding politicians accountable.” The states of “Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin — alongside communities of color and LGBTQ communities” are considered to be key target areas for the campaign. In addition, the group plans an ad buy for key states, such as New Hampshire, Nevada, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio.Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, tells Breitbart News that while Planned Parenthood kicks off its new campaign, so is his organization.“One of the differences between their campaign and ours is that while they rally their troops to elect more politicians who cannot respect the lives of little babies, we will mobilize voters to elect public servants who know the difference between serving the public and killing the public,” he explains. “The other difference between our campaign and that of Planned Parenthood is that we will win and they will lose.”Pavone continues:The public grilling of Planned Parenthood has not helped their cause, but only revealed their callousness, and the callousness of the Democratic members of the three committees in the House of Representatives that have held hearings about Planned Parenthood’s practices. While quite capable of mustering outrage against pro-life people and Republicans, these hypocrites could not express one ounce of outrage over the dismemberment of living children or the sale of their body parts.That simply does not play well with voters who, across political lines and even across “pro-life/pro-choice” lines, have expressed their outrage at what has been exposed.Pavone says Priests for Life will expose the Democrat members of the congressional committees that are investigating Planned Parenthood.“We will expose the attitude of the Democrat Party itself toward late-term abortion and other atrocities of the abortion industry,” he adds. “We are confident that we will find once again that the last thing these abortion supporters want to talk about is abortion — and when you can’t even talk about what you’re trying to defend, that’s a clear sign that you are on the losing side.”Hawkins says Planned Parenthood should hold off on spending its $20 million war chest.“Cecile Richards should save that money for her legal defense fund,” she says.
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Report: Planned Parenthood Defense Run By Anti-Social Conservative Group
BY DR. SUSAN BERRYrepublished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposesA firm with a history of harassing individuals who donate to Republican social conservatives prepared the report Planned Parenthood is using to defend itself to members of Congress following its ongoing video scandal, a report says.
Planned Parenthood’s response was prepared by research firm Fusion GPS, which at the time of publication has a website that provides little to no information about the firm.As Mark Hemingway observes at the Weekly Standard, however, Fusion GPS is “an opposition research firm with ties to the Democratic party and has a history of harassing socially conservative Republican donors, possibly on behalf of the Obama campaign.”In May of 2012, the Wall Street Journal observed that Fusion GPS was responsible for conducting a smear campaign against Idaho businessman Frank Van der Sloot after it was revealed he had donated $1 million to a super PAC that supported then-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.WSJ reported: “President Obama’s campaign website teed him up in April as one of eight ‘less than reputable’ Romney donors and a ‘bitter foe of the gay rights movement.’ One sin: His wife donated to an anti-gay-marriage campaign, of the kind that have passed in 30 or so states.”Subsequently, a former Democrat Senate staffer, Michael Wolf, working for Fusion GPS, called the courthouse in Van der Sloot’s hometown asking for his divorce records.In a story that seems mostly supportive of Planned Parenthood, Politico writes that the report shows, “there is no evidence that the anti-abortion group behind the attack made up dialogue.” Further, the report for Planned Parenthood acknowledged something important: “But the firm also wrote that it is impossible to characterize the extent to which the edits and cuts distort the meaning of the conversations depicted and that there was no “widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation.”The videos have led to an eruption of outrage from the conservative base of the Republican Party and the pro-life community, featuring tens of thousands of Americans participating in protests throughout the country as well as demands to Congress that Planned Parenthood finally is cut off from taxpayer funds.As The Hill reports, Fusion GPS claims it analyzed 12 hours of the videos, resulting in its discovery of dozens of splices that manipulated conversations.“The short tapes are severely edited in ways that are definitely misleading and intended for the purpose of advocacy,” said Glenn Simpson, a partner at Fusion GPS – and former WSJ reporter – who analyzed the tapes.According to Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens, Simpson said that dialogue from one Planned Parenthood medical director describing lab protocols was “cut and strung together” to give the appearance the official was discussing altering the abortion procedure.“The tapes are not an accurate record of what happen,” Laguens said. “They are made to sound that they are talking about things they are not even talking about and to be put in the worst light.”“We are certainly hopeful that leadership of the House and Senate will take action to correct the path that this is headed on,” said Laguens.The Hill also observes, “The public relations push could also provide cover for allies of Planned Parenthood, whose attempts to help the organization have been hurt by the controversy surrounding the fetal tissue program.”In her letter to Republican and Democrat House and Senate leaders, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards claims her organization’s California affiliate receives a “modest reimbursement” of $60 per tissue specimen from a procurement company.Richards adds:[I] want to share information with you about the outrageous activities of anti-abortion activist David Daleiden. Mr. Daleiden and his associates have sought to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and unsuccessfully to entrap Planned Parenthood physicians and staff for nearly three years. It is clear they acted fraudulently and unethically – and perhaps illegally. Yet it is Planned Parenthood, not Mr. Daleiden, that is currently subject to four separate congressional investigations.In response to Richards’ letter, Daleiden said in a statement: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.
