Letter | Planned Parenthood’s practices must not be ignored

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org published an analysis of the the video that has reignited the abortion debate, “Unspinning the Planned Parenthood Video,” and found this: Four experts in the field of human tissue procurement told us the price range discussed in the video — $30 to $100 per patient — represents a reasonable fee. “There’s no way there’s a profit at that price,” said Sherilyn J. Sawyer, the director of Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s “biorepository.”

Your first report on the Planned Parenthood selling of fetal tissue scandal was a story on the response by Cecile Richards, the group's president, to a video showing a Planned Parenthood abortionist discussing methods of procuring the organs of aborted babies, the prices for those organs, etc.

Richards also offers an apology for “a staffer videotaped by an anti-abortion group.” In her video response, she also apologizes for the staffer's “tone.”

Now since this indeed was your first report on the matter, I hope I may, as a service to those readers who may not have learned from some other source what exactly she's apologizing for, highlight some of the revelations brought to light in the video released on July 14.

The staffer Richards refers to is abortionist Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Senior Director of Medical Services. She oversees the practices of all the 700-plus Planned Parenthood locations. Unaware of being videotaped, she's discussing this business with folks she believes are prospective buyers.

At lunch, while munching on her salad and sipping her wine, Nucatola explains how the organs and extremities of the babies are removed intact so that they can be sold to buyers and that the organization is paid between $30 to $100 per “specimen.”

She said: “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. The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium - the head - is basically the biggest part.”

“It's very rare to have a patient that doesn't have enough dilation to evacuate the other parts intact.”

“To bring the body cavity out intact and all that?” the man asks.

“Exactly,” she replies. “So then you'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.'”

Yes, I'd say her tone could definitely use a little work.

Ironic is it not, that Planned Parenthood will use ultrasound to see better what to crush and what not to crush but fight like crazy to keep mothers about to abort their children from seeing those children via ultrasound?

She talks of a list that she refers to in supplying the body parts that are being requested and goes on to cite her personal participation.

“For example, I had eight cases yesterday. And I knew exactly what we needed, and I kinda looked at this list and said, 'Alright, this 17-weeker has 8 LAMs and this one - so I knew which were the cases that were probably more likely to yield what we needed, and I made my decisions according to that, too. So, it's worth having a huddle at the beginning of the day, and that's what I do.”

That's a 17-week old growing baby in the womb she's talking about.

Even if one believes one should have the choice of ending their children's lives, who can defend this particular barbarism? And, since Planned Parenthood receives multiple millions in our tax dollars every year regrettably, one wonders why this would be necessary.

Pure evil? Greed perhaps?

A second video was released on July 21 featuring another “staffer,” Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director Council President, Dr. Mary Gatter, discussing payments for intact specimens and offering to use a “less crunchy technique” to get more intact body parts.

And she wants “a Lamborghini.” Yep, her “tone” could definitely be improved on.

Selling fetal organs/body parts is a felony, a federal crime. It appears the Department of Justice is going to investigate the video makers, but I've not heard that they're investigating Planned Parenthood.

Go figure.

I hope I'm wrong about that, but it seems that the administration and its media would like to ignore this story as much as possible, as they did the Kermit Gosnell story.

After all:

“God bless Planned Parenthood.” - Barack Obama

The writer lives in Myrtle Beach.

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Letter | Planned Parenthood’s practices must not be ignored."