Each year, taxpayers at the state and federal level give Planned Parenthood more than $500 million. But a new video reveals taxpayer subsidies are not their only source of funds.
On Tuesday, the Center for Medical Progress released an undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, casually describing how her organization commits illegal partial-birth abortions to harvest the organs of unborn children, which are then sold. According to Nucatola, abortion clinics charge between $30 and $100 per body part.
This macabre practice is not only repugnant, but illegal. Trafficking in the sale of human body parts is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $500,000. Performing the partial birth abortion procedure, which President Bush outlawed in 2003, is punishable by up to two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In the video, Nucatola confirms that she is not acting alone, telling the undercover investigators that “we have a Litigation and Law Department which just really doesn’t want us to be the middle people for this issue right now.” However, she also stated “that behind closed doors these conversations [to sell harvested organs] are happening with the affiliates.”
Nucatola’s boss even got in on the action. The investigators, who posed as organ purchasers, told Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards, “We do fetal tissue collection, and she’s been very helpful” with “figuring out who to talk to.” Richards’ response was chilling: “She’s amazing.”
The organization’s chief investigator, David Daleiden, said each Planned Parenthood facility could earn up to $100,000 a year from the sales.
Lawbreaking is nothing new for Planned Parenthood. Six years of undercover videos from Live Action have found that its clinics are more than willing to cover up statutory rape and facilitate human trafficking as part of its business model. Furthermore, Planned Parenthood employees regularly lie to expectant mothers about fetal development.
With these new revelations, Congress should sever any ties the American taxpayer has with the nation’s leading abortion provider.
GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina told us that the “latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn’t about ‘choice.’ It’s about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it’s about empowerment.”
Fiorina is right. U.S. taxpayers should have no part in subsidizing any organization that profits from organ harvesting, trafficking in human body parts, and evading federal abortion laws.
More than four years ago, House Speaker John Boehner nearly succeeded in defunding Planned Parenthood — showing a dedication to life that is rarely seen in Washington.
Today, we call on him, the Congressional Republican majority, and every candidate seeking the presidential nomination to defund Planned Parenthood in its entirety.
Defunding Planned Parenthood isn’t the solution to America’s abortion problem, but it would be an enormous step forward towards creating a culture of life.
Furthermore, we demand a full investigation of any illegal activity and prosecution to the full extent of the law.
As we remembered on Independence Day, governments are instituted to protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They must also ensure justice for the most vulnerable of all.
John-Henry Westen is a co-founder of Voice of the Family, an influential international coalition of pro-life and pro-family groups which defends life and family in the media. He is also a co-founder of LifeSiteNews.com, a leading daily news website on life and family issues. Ben Johnson is U.S. Bureau Chief of LifeSiteNews.com and guest host of “Nothing But Truth” on the AFR Talk Radio Network.