WHY WE NEED A PLANNED PARENTHOOD INVESTIGATION
A Response to Planned Parenthood’s Damage-Control “Talking Points”:
Selling Aborted Baby Organs For Profit is Unethical and Illegal
Planned Parenthood’s Senior Medical Director, Dr. Deborah Nucatola has been caught on camera
discussing how she strategically kills babies to harvest and sell their hearts, lungs, and livers. With over
2 million views and counting on Youtube, the viral video released by the Center for Medical Progress
has created a legal challenge and public relations nightmare for Planned Parenthood Federation of
America and its affiliates.
Having the grisly reality of its highly lucrative abortion business on public display is far from Planned
Parenthood’s only problem. Dr. Nucatola’s comments raise credible concerns about potentially illegal
activity. Under federal law, it is illegal to “knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any fetal
tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce.” 42 U.S.C. 282g-2(a).
Several states and U.S. Congressional committees have already launched investigations into Planned
Parenthood’s scheme to collect and distribute baby parts.
As will be explained in detail below, the “talking points” document issued by Planned Parenthood’s
public relations firm, attempts to dodge and distract from this scandal, but the “talking points”
themselves utterly fail to respond to the shocking allegations raised by the Center for Medical Progress’
video.
1.
PPFA claim: The video was unethically and heavily edited.
Ø The full video is available and supports investigating Planned Parenthood.
As expected, Planned Parenthood’s first attempted defense against the shocking admissions of its own
Senior Medical Director is to claim that the “secret” video was “unethically” and “heavily” edited,
despite the fact that the Center for Medical Progress immediately made the full video and a written
transcript available.
For anyone who can stomach listening to the three-hour conversation where Planned Parenthood’s Dr.
Nucatola callously describes killing babies, “crushing” their tiny bodies, and then harvesting their body
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parts, the video is available here. For those who would rather not watch Nucatola sip wine and eat lunch
as she describes in harrowing detail how fetal tissue is harvested at Planned Parenthood, the full, written
transcript is available here.
2.
PPFA claim: Aborted pregnancy tissue donation and research are humanitarian undertakings…
Ø Planned Parenthood is a business that charges for abortion, profiting from killing these
babies even before it harvests their body parts.
To distract from the allegations that Planned Parenthood is illegally selling the parts of the babies it
aborts, Planned Parenthood claims that “aborted pregnancy tissue donation and research are
humanitarian undertakings…”
It bears remembering that the so-called “pregnancy tissue” being discussed is the body parts of babies
that were intentionally killed by Planned Parenthood for money. Killing these babies is already a moneymaking business for Planned Parenthood. Selling their organs afterward is a profitable “line extension”
after abortion.
Intentionally killing human beings and then harvesting their hearts, lungs, brains and muscles does not
promote human welfare. It is the precise opposite of a humanitarian undertaking.
Planned Parenthood cannot hide behind an “ends-justify-the-means” excuse. As the video released by
the Center for Medical Progress exposes, Planned Parenthood provides the abhorrent means for the
death and dismemberment of untold numbers of unborn babies.
3.
PPFA Claim: No individual staff member or provider receives reimbursement; any
reimbursements are provided to the affiliate
Ø The sale of baby parts is illegal whether the check is written out to a Planned Parenthood
affiliate or to a Planned Parenthood employee.
Planned Parenthood’s claim that “no individual staff member or provider receives reimbursement; any
reimbursements are provided to the affiliate” is irrelevant to the question about whether these payments
are part of an illegal operation.
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Under federal law, it is illegal:
“for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any fetal tissue for valuable
consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce.” 42 U.S.C. 282g-2(a) (emphasis added).
A Planned Parenthood affiliate is a person under federal law.
It is absurd to suggest that staff members and “providers” (the term Planned Parenthood uses for its
abortionists) do not benefit from the money the affiliates receive for the body parts of unborn children.
The money received by Planned Parenthood affiliates is used to pay the salaries and benefits of its
employees and to promote more abortions.
As detailed further below, “valuable consideration” means profit.
Ø The video also provides evidence that Planned Parenthood is profiting – receiving “valuable
consideration” -- from sale of aborted baby organs.
4.
PPFA Claim: [The Center for Medical Progress] is a fake medical website as well as a fake
human tissue website that purports to provide services to stem cell researchers.
Ø Dr. Nucatola, as well as other abortionists at Planned Parenthood affiliates across the
country, are actively engaged in the harvesting of the body parts of the babies they abort.
Planned Parenthood attempts to deflect attention from the ugly reality of its harvesting of baby organs
like hearts, lungs and livers by pointing to the fact that, as part of its undercover operation, the Center
for Medical Progress created a “fake medical website as well as a fake human tissue website that
purports to provide services to stem cell researchers.”
Yes, the Center for Medical Progress is not actually involved in harvesting of baby parts -- but Planned
Parenthood is.
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Dr. Nucatola describes the very real Planned Parenthood practice of harvesting baby parts - an
apparently longstanding practice in which she actively takes part. The Center for Medical Progress
presented themselves as potential competitors in an already established market. Dr. Nucatola makes it
clear that harvesting of body parts from aborted babies is an ongoing part of her practice. Clearly, she is
already a seasoned pro at harvesting the body parts of aborted babies.
Dr. Nucatola’s descriptions about how she already strategically “crush[es]” the babies that she kills so
she can harvest their hearts, lungs, and livers are sadly very real. While eating lunch and drinking wine,
she casually explains how the day before she personally ended the lives of eight babies—including a “17
weeker.” She adds the information that she began her day by planning around which babies offered the
organs on her order list. That is the troubling reality of Planned Parenthood’s daily operations.
5.
PPFA Claim: Deborah Nucatola was not selling “fetal parts,” she was speculating on the range
of reimbursements that patients can receive after stating they wish to donate any tissue after a procedure.
Ø Dr. Nucatola acknowledges that Planned Parenthood affiliates, in fact, receive money when
they harvest baby parts.
In its deceptive “talking points,” Planned Parenthood falsely asserts that, “the [videotape’s] transcript
indicates that Deborah Nucatola was speculating on the range of reimbursements that patients can
receive after stating they wish to donate any tissue after a procedure.” However, previously in the
“talking points” document, Planned Parenthood’s public relations firm freely acknowledges that Planned
Parenthood affiliates—not patients—receive the money from the collection and distribution of baby
body parts.
Moreover, the transcript does not indicate, as they claim, that patients receive “reimbursements.”
Dr. Nucatola never states that the money is given to patients. Rather, Dr. Nucatola repeatedly indicates
that the charges being billed to the procurement firms are being paid to Planned Parenthood for its
services:
“[I]n all cases, it’s going to be about staff time, because that’s the only cost to the affiliate,”
Nucatola said.
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If the money were being given to patients, it would directly contradict Dr. Nucatola’s assertions that
Planned Parenthood affiliates take these payments to ensure that there is no negative impact on their
bottom-line:
“This is just a service that should be able to provide for a patient in a way that doesn’t impact their
(the Planned Parenthood affiliate’s) bottom-line,” Nucatola said.
Ø In addition, even if the payments were made directly to patients, those payments -- if they
are for valuable consideration -- would still violate federal law.
Ø Dr. Nucatola makes clear that Planned Parenthood is primarily concerned about the
perception that its affiliates are only getting costs for “reimbursement,” and the admission
demands a thorough investigation.
6.
PPFA Claim: The affiliate only gets cost reimbursement.
Ø Dr. Nucatola specifically says that if the affiliates can “do better than break even” that they
are “happy to do it.”
Planned Parenthood asserts that, “a number of times, the Planned Parenthood provider explains that the
affiliate only gets cost reimbursement…” However, Dr. Nucatola’s recorded conversation makes it clear
that Planned Parenthood’s paramount objective is that the money Planned Parenthood affiliates receive
appears to be reimbursements.
“They want to come to a number that looks like it is a reasonable number for the effort that is
allotted on their part,” she said.
Dr. Nucatola explains that Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s “guidance” (which it curiously
refuses to commit to writing) is for its affiliates to merely keep a record that marshals perceptions, and
creates an impression that nothing “egregious” – and potentially illegal – is occurring at Planned
Parenthood’s affiliates:
“It’s really just about if anyone were to ever ask them, what do you do for this $60, how can you
justify that? Or are you basically just doing something completely egregious? So it just needs to
be justifiable,” Nucatola explains.
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Considering that Planned Parenthood writes its own receipts for “staff time” (what Dr. Nucatola asserts
is “the only cost” involved in its collection and distribution of baby body parts), whether they are
actually being reimbursed for costs, or merely creating a paper trail to “look” reasonable, demands a
thorough investigation at both the federal and state levels.
Dr. Nucatola herself also contradicts the claim that the collection and distribution of baby body parts
involves a zero sum gain for Planned Parenthood:
“If [Planned Parenthood affiliates] can do a little better than break-even and do so in a way that
seems reasonable, they’re happy to do it,” she says.
She further explains that:
“Really, the guidance [from PPFA] is this is not something that you should be making an
exorbitant amount of money on.”
It has to look “reasonable.” It cannot be so obviously “egregious” that it is going to draw attention, and
it can’t be “exorbitant.” For Planned Parenthood it is perception, perception, perception – but the law
cares about reality.
Unlike Planned Parenthood’s “guidance,” the law prohibits making money, whether it is exorbitant or
not, period. It is illegal to make less-than “exorbitant” profits on the sale of aborted baby body parts.
Even “a little” profit, better than breaking-even, is illegal.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s own annual reports belie Dr. Nucatola’s assertions that
because Planned Parenthood affiliates are technically non-profits, “it’s not like they have tons of money
sitting around to start” and that “every penny they save, they give to another patient.” They do a lot
better than “break-even.” As Americans United for Life has documented, Planned Parenthood
Federation of America and its affiliates make an average daily profit of $250,000, after paying all its
own high salaries and wish-list funds. Each and every day, $250,000 is deposited in Planned
Parenthood’s bank accounts.
How much of that profit can be attributed to selling aborted baby hearts, lungs and livers?
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American taxpayers – whose hard-earned money subsidizes the profit-making abortion giant with over
$528 million each year – deserve to know if Planned Parenthood is padding its already significant profits
with money from the sale of aborted baby body parts.
7.
PPFA Claim: Baby organs are sold because their patients are choosing tissue donation.
Ø Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Nucatola explains that the demands of procurement
companies—who pay money to Planned Parenthood for baby body parts—impact how she
performs abortions.
Planned Parenthood attempts to distract from the grisly details of its baby organ harvesting operations,
and the resultant allegations that it is engaged in illegal activity, by pointing its finger at the “wishes” of
its patients: “Some people who have decided to terminate a pregnancy choose to donate fetal tissue in
the interest of medical science. Opponents have grossly mischaracterized their decision and the way
Planned Parenthood carries out those wishes.”
It is Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Nucatola—not abortion opponents— who explains that she “huddles” in
the morning to think about which babies she will harvest what organs from – to meet the demands from
the procurement companies, not the patients:
[F]or example, so I had 8 cases yesterday. And I knew exactly what we needed, and I
kinda looked at the list and said okay, 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. (Emphasis added.)
Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Nucatola is the one who explains that she prioritizes the wishes of the
procurement companies that, in turn, pay money to Planned Parenthood:
I actually like being involved in the process, so I say, ‘Okay, what are you looking to
supply today?’ And then I look at the list, and I say well, all these patients, they only have
3 laminaria, I wouldn’t hold your breath for that, I think I might be able to get it for this
case, I think I might be able to get it for that case, is there, you know, what else can we
do?
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It is Dr. Nucatola’s callous conversation about the strategic way she will “crush” (her word) live, healthy
babies to preserve their hearts, lungs, and livers while she extinguishes their lives that has shocked the
conscience of the nation.
So then you’re just kind of cognizant of 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 heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not going to crush that part, I’m
going to basically crush below, I’m going to crush above, and I’m going to see if I can
get it all intact.
The full video and the context do not cleanse Dr. Nucatola’s own words from their implications
that Planned Parenthood may be violating federal and state laws.
8.
PPFA Claim: Dr. Nucatola was discussing collecting tissue for scientific research not
trafficking in body parts.
Ø In addition to the troubling concerns about selling aborted baby parts for profit, the video
provides evidence that Dr. Nucatola, and perhaps other Planned Parenthood abortionists, are
violating federal law by changing their surgical procedure to retrieve body organs that are
marketable, and doing so in a way that violates the federal ban on partial birth abortion.
In its deceitful and ridiculous attempt at damage-control, Planned Parenthood tries to divert attention
from its disturbing and potentially illegal practices by inviting “strawmen.”
Planned Parenthood claims as an “inaccuracy” that the “edited video takes a discussion of procedures
about brain stem tissue used to advance medical knowledge about such medical issues as brain tumors
and instead implies a conversation about trafficking body parts.”
Planned Parenthood further claims that “[i]n response to a question about collecting brain stem tissue
that may be valuable for the study of the central nervous system….the Planned Parenthood provider
describes ways that clinicians can best preserve tissue during a procedure. This content is taken wholly
out of context in the promotional video.”
Dr. Nucatola’s conversation does more than suggest trafficking body parts. The “ways that clinicians
can best preserve tissue during an [abortion] procedure” described by Dr. Nucatola suggest violations of
federal and state laws prohibiting partial birth abortions.
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Dr. Nucatola is not theorizing on how abortionists could keep the calvarium (the baby’s head) intact, but
describes what, in practice, abortionists “in general” actually do:
[I]n general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not
vertex, because when it’s vertex presentation, you never have enough dilation at the
beginning of the case, unless you have real, huge amount of dilation to deliver an intact
calvarium. So, if you’re starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that
happens as the case goes on, and often, the last, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at
the end.
This raises serious concerns since “changing the presentation” of the baby’s body is a hallmark of a
partial-birth abortion procedure, which is illegal under federal law. 18 U.S.C. § 1531.
There is no exception in the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act or any state law banning this
abhorrent practice for an abortionist to use this illegal procedure if the body parts of that infant will
subsequently be used in medical research. There is no “escape clause” that exonerates an abortionist’s
otherwise illegal actions. It is not relevant that medical research using the illegally obtained baby body
parts might theoretically find a cure for a disease.
Dr. Nucatola compounds the concern that violations of the Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, and
similar state laws, abound by expressing her view that the “intent” requirement can be manipulated to
evade the requirements of the law:
Because number one, the Federal [Partial-Birth] Abortion Ban is a law, and laws are up
to interpretation. So there are some people who interpret it as intent. So if I say on day
one ‘I do not intend to do this,’ what ultimately happens doesn’t matter. Because I didn’t
intend to do this on day one, so I’m complying with the law.
The recorded conversation— in the full video and in context—raises serious questions about Planned
Parenthood’s potentially illegal practices and demand investigation.
9. PPFA Claim: Planned Parenthood follows all laws and insists on high standards of care.
Ø The video provides evidence of multiple violations of the law.
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To support its arguments, Planned Parenthood baldly claims that it “follows all laws and insists on high
standards of care.”
That is simply untrue. The video provides evidence of multiple violations of the law.
Serious concerns are raised that there is a systemic violation at Planned Parenthood affiliates of the
federal ban on selling the body parts of aborted babies, 42 U.S.C. 282g-2(a), and similar state laws.
Likewise, Dr. Nucatola’s admissions demand a thorough investigation into potential violations of the
Federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, 18 U.S. C. § 1531, and similar state laws.
Ø Additionally, Planned Parenthood has a long history of unethical and illegal activity.
For example, Planned Parenthood has a significant track record of violating laws limiting its
reimbursements (from federal and state governments) to “costs.” In just one case, a 2004 California
audit of Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties revealed that that one Planned
Parenthood affiliate—in one year—overbilled the Medicaid program by over $5 million.
According to Victor Gonzalez, who was the Vice President of Financial Administration with Planned
Parenthood of Los Angeles at the time, Planned Parenthood’s overbilling practice was state-wide. In his
whistleblower lawsuit, Mr. Gonzalez estimates that the overbilling by Planned Parenthood’s California
affiliates was greater than $180 million.
Similarly, audit reports in New York, New Jersey, and Washington have documented Planned
Parenthood affiliates taking more money from government programs than allowed by law.
In August 2013, Planned Parenthood agreed to pay a $4.3 million settlement in a case brought by Karen
Reynolds, a “Health Center Assistant” for nearly 10 years at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Lufkin,
Texas. Ms. Reynolds’ complaint alleged that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast employees were trained to
and did bill the government for medical services never actually provided, as well as for services that
were not medically necessary.
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A similar lawsuit was brought by Abby Johnson, who worked at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s clinic
in Bryan, Texas from September 2001 until she resigned in October 2009. Ms. Johnson alleges that the
managers of each of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s 10 Texas clinics were told to bill for products and
services ineligible for reimbursement under the Texas Women’s Health Program, resulting in Planned
Parenthood improperly receiving over $5 million in taxpayer funding.
In another whistleblower lawsuit, Sue Thayer, a former manager for Planned Parenthood of the
Heartland, alleges that to enhance revenues, the Planned Parenthood affiliate implemented a “C-Mail”
program that effectively mailed thousands of unrequested birth control pills to women, and then billed
the government for these pills. According to her complaint, the Planned Parenthood affiliate also
solicited funds from patients for services fully covered by government programs while continuing to bill
the government program for full reimbursement.
In its ongoing effort to expose the truth about Planned Parenthood, Americans United for Life has
documented these and other cases of Planned Parenthood abuses in
Ø
Ø
Ø
Ø
Ø
The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood,
The Planned Parenthood Exhibits,
Abortion Inc.—Cecile Richards’ Planned Parenthood, and
The New Leviathan: How Planned Parenthood Has Become Abortion, Inc.
The AUL reports are available at http://www.aul.org/new-leviathan/
Planned Parenthood’s real, abhorrent—and potentially illegal—practice of harvesting the body
parts of the babies it kills is not addressed in any way by their official response through the
“talking points” document.
Serious moral, ethical and legal questions remain. Planned Parenthood has not addressed these
questions. They have denied, dodged and distracted. Planned Parenthood’s “dodge and distract”
response to the Center for Medical Progress’ hard-hitting expose was expected—but unacceptable.
Planned Parenthood must be held accountable for its conduct and for any violations of law. The
American public must demand that the abortion conglomerate be cut off from accessing public funds.
The half a billion dollars that the scandal-ridden Planned Parenthood takes each year from taxpayers
would be better invested in real health care that respects human life.
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