Think your significant other is being unfaithful? If so, then it might be time to have a difficult conversation about the future of your relationship. Or you could have Clark Gable’s grandson do it for you. On national television.
Clark Gable III is the current host of Cheaters, a TV show that revolves around infidelity. Each episode begins by introducing someone with suspicions about a partner. Next comes surveillance footage of the person in question. When their guilt is finally proven (and it always is), the evidence is shown to the wronged party. At this point, the victim, Mr. Gable, and a posse of cameramen and bodyguards roll up to confront the target. Voices tend to get raised.
The cheater typically responds by claiming innocence. Amazingly, some will continue to do so even when presented with a recording of his or her transgressions. To most people, this comes off looking absurd.
Apparently the higher ups at Planned Parenthood feel differently; they’ve taken the same approach to handling their latest scandal.
Earlier this month, the Center for Medical Progress released a video of Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services. It shows her having lunch with people who claim they’re with a company dealing in human tissue. Over the course of the meeting, Nucatola discusses a number of activities. The fact that many of them are illegal doesn’t seem to bother her.
While federal law prohibits altering how an abortion is performed in order to facilitate the harvesting of organs, Nucatola talks about doing just that. As she explains,
We’ve been very good at getting 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.
It doesn’t stop there. Four minutes and ten seconds into the video above, Nucatola starts describing a technique that sounds a lot like partial-birth abortion. Partial-birth abortions have been outlawed since 2003, but the Planned Parenthood doctor isn’t too concerned. In her words, “The Federal (Partial-Birth) Abortion ban is a law, and laws are up to interpretation.”
Making money from the sale of fetal organs is also illegal; evidently that isn’t a concern either. Although Planned Parenthood has decided “it’s too touchy” for the national organization to act as “middlemen” when it comes to supplying human remains, regional affiliates are welcome to look for opportunities:
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. 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.
Doing better than breaking even is what most people would call “turning a profit.”
In their response, Planned Parenthood said pro-lifers were making “false allegations” and initiating a “smear job.” Further, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards insisted that the group doesn’t profit “in any way” from the transfer of human tissue. If so, then someone should probably explain that to Dr. Mary Gatter. She’s the president of Planned Parenthood’s medical directors council, and it sounds like she has other ideas.
In another video that was released this week, Gatter can be heard haggling over the value of fetal body parts. She makes it clear that getting a good price is important to her, stating, “I want a Lamborghini.”
What isn’t important to her is behaving ethically towards her patients:
Let me explain to you a little bit of a problem, which may not be a big problem. If our usual technique is suction, at 10 to 12 weeks, and we switch to using an IPAS [manual vacuum aspirator] or something with less suction, in order to increase the odds that it will come out as an intact specimen, then we’re kind of violating the protocol that says to the patient, “We’re not doing anything different in our care for you.”
Is “violating the protocol” something she feels bad about? Nope.
Now, to me, that’s kind of a specious little argument, and I wouldn’t object to asking Ian — who’s our surgeon who does the cases — to use an IPAS at that gestational stage, in order to increase the odds that he’s going to get an intact specimen.
In light of all this, it’s clearly time for a break-up between Planned Parenthood and the federal government. A good start would be ending the half billion dollar subsidy that the group receives every year; you can sign Live Action’s petition asking Congress to do that. You should also sign the petition at WhiteHouse.gov demanding criminal prosecution.
The producers of Cheaters say their show is about promoting “temperance” and virtue.” When it comes to Planned Parenthood’s latest scandal, the focus should be on crimes and consequences. There’s been plenty of the former, and now it’s time to bring down some of the latter.
