The recent undercover video of a Planned Parenthood executive casually discussing fetal organ harvesting over lunch is shocking to many, but it really shouldn’t be surprising. Planned Parenthood is no stranger to undercover videos. In the past they’ve dealt with issues ranging from failing to report sexual abuse to approval of sex-selection abortions. Their defense has always been that such videos are “heavily edited,” and that quotes are taken out of context.
Thankfully the Center for Medical of Progress has released the full, almost 3-hour unedited video on YouTube for all, and it doesn’t make Dr. Deborah Nucatola look any better. Watch the entire video and let her speak for herself. Let’s consider a couple of items from the unedited tape.
At one point Dr. Nucatola discusses an argument over abortion methods, whether it’s worth poisoning the baby first. Apparently some abortionists prefer the babies to literally be kicking as they tear off limbs in a dismemberment abortion, one-by-one.
“There’s like a culture war on feticide,” she said. “People on the west coast seem to prefer feticide, people on the east coast seem to not believe in feticide. Everyone has their own styles.”
That’s just their style; it’s almost like a cook talking shop about tips for roasts or marinades.
Consider Planned Parenthood’s flat denial that they profit from organ harvesting. Dr. Nucatola’s words create some doubt about that denial.
“I think for affiliates, at the end of the day, they’re a non-profit, they just don’t want to—they want to break even,” she said. “And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that.”
In the end, Planned Parenthood may be able to conjure up documentation to assert that every payment they received is “reasonable,” and thus legal. Later in the tape she says they don’t profit from the organ sales, but which is it? Doing better than breaking even is the definition of profiting. A thorough investigation is needed to determine the truth.
Nucatola justifies the sales by saying Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit, that “every penny they save is just pennies they give to another patient.” Planned Parenthood made a profit of $127.1 million in 2013-2014, according to their Annual Report. They spent $33.6 million on lobbying government that same year. They spent $15 million on the 2012 election.
Planned Parenthood receives almost half of their budget ($528.4 million) from taxpayers, and they turn around and spend millions lobbying for more. It’s outrageous that people who object to abortion and to fetal organ harvesting are being forced to support a highly political organization. Recently the Michigan budget zeroed out funding for Planned Parenthood, and everyone else should do the same.
Michael Wear, a writer for the Atlantic and a former staffer in the Obama White House, summed up this issue perfectly on Twitter: “It should bother us as a society that we have use for aborted human organs, but not the baby that provides them.”
