Two videos previously released by undercover journalist David Daleiden and his team at the Center for Medical Progress contain comments from Planned Parenthood abortionists and top-level executives about abortions committed on minors.
In one of the videos, Planned Parenthood staffers Tram Nguyen and Ann Schutt-Ainé, who were working in leadership positions for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast at the time the videos were recorded, discussed an abortion that was carried out on a minor, whom they agreed was ‘not cooperative.’
In one video, Nguyen recalled to Schutt-Ainé an abortion carried out by a mutual colleague on a minor who was 16 weeks pregnant.
“It was like a 16-weeker that Dr. [Anitra] B[easley] had did, but it was on a minor, and so it was one of those minors where Dr. B had to like hurry it up, and like…” Nguyen said. She then demonstrated what it would look like to “hurry it up” during an abortion by grimacing and making digging motions with her arms.
Daleiden interjected, “Was it because the patient was not cooperative or…?”
“Yeah.” Nguyen responded. “It was just, like, not the smoothest.”
In another video, Nguyen discussed good versus bad “samples” while referring to the babies she killed. Nguyen recalled a case involving an abortion on a minor, which was so traumatic that the baby’s body was too mangled to be handed over to research.
“It was like one bad sample. It was like a 16-year-old kid, so we just had to hurry up, whereas like other days it’s, like, more intact where it’s, like, maybe only like an arm that’s disarticulated.”
In a couple of short sentences, Nguyen managed to dehumanize both preborn babies and their young mothers. For Nguyen, the second baby described wasn’t a person but a “bad sample,” and the baby’s mother was just some “16-year-old kid.”
Nguyen’s comments in both conversations about needing to “hurry up” minors’ abortions raises questions about the mental and emotional state of teenage mothers who undergo abortions at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast facilities and about the safety of the procedures being carried out.
Were the young mothers noncompliant because they were in extreme pain or even being forced to undergo the abortions? We don’t know.
The most commonly used second trimester abortion procedure is a D&E, or dilation and evacuation abortion, also called a dismemberment abortion because the abortionist uses a Sopher clamp to tear the arms and legs off of the preborn child. When attempting to collect fetal body parts to sell to tissue procurement companies, the abortionist will not use digoxin (a feticide) to end the baby’s life before dismemberment because it will taint the ‘sample.’
A D&E is a violent procedure, and research published in 2022 revealed that “respondents seeking abortion care at later gestations in the second trimester were more likely to report pain during their abortions.” Two of the risks involved with the procedure are cervical injury and uterine perforation, and rushing through the procedure could increase the risks for such injuries, as well as increasing the potential for an incomplete abortion. If not all body parts are removed from the mother’s uterus, infection can set in, which can lead to sepsis and even death if left untreated.
Nguyen later discusses how people would respond if they heard how she spoke to other abortionists. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, I have like a leg for you!’” she says. “I’m like, oh sh**, if other people were to hear me, they’d be like, you are f***ing evil.”
The traumatic abortion experiences of minors
What were rushed abortions like for the teenage girls undergoing the procedures that killed their preborn babies?
Tammy Holly told Live Action News the story of her own abortion, which her parents and boyfriend coerced her into having at the age of 17 with the assistance of the abortionist. On the day of the abortion, the abortionist asked Holly if she was consenting to the procedure.
“I told him absolutely not,” Holly said. “He said that I’d have to talk to my parents, which would have been fruitless. They were instrumental in me having the abortion. I was like a frightened animal that was backed into a corner.”
She was 11 weeks, close to the 12-week limit when abortions could legally be committed, and her parents wanted it over quickly. She felt intense pressure to go through with the abortion.
Holly explained (emphasis added), “They told me the procedure was simple, but it was very painful. I was given a sedative but could hear the awful sound of the suction machine ripping my baby from my womb. As my body convulsed, three nurses held me down and told me to be quiet as to not disturb others who were waiting for their abortions.”
It is unclear if Holly’s abortion was committed at a Planned Parenthood facility, but her description of the procedure could fit with Nguyen’s description of the difficulty with committing abortions on minors.
A Google Review of Planned Parenthood West Hartford in Connecticut similarly described the nightmarish scene of a teenage girl’s abortion.
“When I was 17, I came here for a surgical abortion. They lied to me. They said they’d give me ‘twilight sedation,’ but they gave me NOTHING. I was completely LUCID during my procedure. I laid on the table while 4 nurses held me down and the … doctor performed the procedure as I screamed and squirmed. Instead of stopping to check on me, they held me down and held my legs open.”
Planned Parenthood and abortion coercion
Live Action’s undercover investigations at Planned Parenthood facilities around the country revealed that Planned Parenthood staff were willing to aid pimps in getting abortions and STD treatments for the minor girls they were trafficking. Some Planned Parenthood staff even instructed pimps on how to lie about the age of the minors and how they could pretend to be the girls’ guardians.
Lawsuits and documentation show that Planned Parenthood cooperated with predators for decades by failing to report child sexual abuse and by committing abortions on minors, only to return the vulnerable girls back to their abusers.
Former Planned Parenthood employees have come forward, sharing how Planned Parenthood staff were complicit with parents in forcing minor girls to have abortions, and how Planned Parenthood’s counseling was weaponized as a manipulation tactic to coerce young women into having abortions.
As Live Action founder and president Lila Rose previously said, “While Planned Parenthood frequently attempts to establish itself as a leading advocate on sexual abuse, it is actually one of the biggest accomplices to sexual abuse in the nation.”
