The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) heads to court this month for the criminal trial in which they face nine felony charges regarding the California video recording law. The pro-life group recorded conversations with some of Planned Parenthood’s top abortionists and staff, and in doing so, exposed the trafficking of aborted baby body parts. Despite the fact that journalists record and publish information through undercover reporting daily in California, the state attorney general’s office has zeroed in on CMP. However, during the preliminary hearing to see if a criminal trial should proceed, shocking statements made under oath helped to validate everything CMP had uncovered.
1. Statements made by Planned Parenthood in the videos were accurate and unedited
While on the stand, the Senior Director of Medical Services for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America – known as Doe 9 – was questioned on the validity of her statements in the videos. Initially, she lied and said that the videos were edited to make her say things she didn’t say. However, defense attorneys moved to impeach her since her sworn testimony in the hearing did not match her sworn deposition testimony in the civil federal case, and she admitted that the videos depicted her statements accurately.
Q: “You’re not claiming that any of the videos of yourself that we watched together yesterday or this morning were somehow edited or altered to make it appear that you were saying things that you didn’t actually say, are you?”
A: “Of the clips that we watched here together? No.”
With this simple “No” Doe 9 revealed the truth – the videos were not altered to change the statements made by the persons depicted.
Screenshot from CMP’s first released undercover video
2. Planned Parenthood ignored federal rules
On the stand as Doe 10, the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles admitted that federal rules were broken regarding abortion in order to obtain body parts from the aborted children — body parts that were considered to be of higher value. In other words, Planned Parenthood stood to make more money if certain body parts were able to be harvested intact.
Q: “Well, as I understand it, you did not have a policy for the clinicians about changing technique in relation to procurement of fetal tissue; correct?”
A: “That is correct.”
Q: “At Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, in the cases where you had a D&E and fetal tissue was procured, there was no prohibition on providers placing their instruments in different positions on the fetus in order to procure better fetal tissue; correct?”
A: “We did not have a discussion about that.”
Q: “And I don’t think you answered my question. There was no prohibition on that; correct?”
A: “That is correct.”
Federal consent rules prohibit a doctor from altering the method of a medical procedure without the patient’s consent. In the undercover video featuring Doe 10, she said that she would ask abortionists to use a “less crunchy” method of killing the preborn children so that their organs would not be damaged during the abortion – making them optimal for sale.
READ: Center for Medical Progress files defamation lawsuit against former Planned Parenthood abortionist
3. Planned Parenthood harvested organs and tissue from intact aborted children
The CEO of StemExpress, known as Doe 12, took the stand during the preliminary hearing and admitted that when a preborn child’s brain is harvested, there are times when the head and limbs may be attached to the body. In order for a child to be aborted still intact, an induction method is used. However, the use of a feticide to kill the preborn child before he or she exits the mother’s body is avoided when seeking to harvest organs because the feticide could damage them. If feticide is not used, there is the real potential of the child being born alive.
In the video recording of a meeting with undercover CMP journalist David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the StemExpress CEO can be heard saying that they have “done a lot” of “intact cases.” On the stand, she seemed to want to avoid this admission, but the truth came out.
Q: “Do you obtain intact fetuses for procurement purposes?”
A: “No.”
Q: “And -“
A: “So just to – let me rephrase that statement. So – because I think it actually needs to be rephrased. When you say the word ‘fetus,’ I don’t think of, for example, an embryo. Like, to me, that’s not medically defined in my eyes that way. There are requests that we have had to deal with whole embryos. And so some may deem that as a whole fetus. But that’s not how we have defined that internally.”
Apparently Planned Parenthood has different definitions for embryo and fetus that vary from the scientific terms. She went on to say that she sometimes uses “the word ‘case’ interchangeably.” Finally, she admitted that intact aborted children are used for organ and tissue procurement.
Q: “For the tissue procurement technicians from StemExpress who are presented with an intact calvarium, is the midsection of the body attached to the calvarium at times?”
A: “Potentially, yes, at times.”
Q: “And could other extremities also be attached to the midsection of the body?”
A: “Yes.”
Screenshot from one of CMP’s videos
4. “No question” babies are born alive at Planned Parenthood
Dr. Forrest Smith, an abortionist for 50 years, gave shocking testimony when he spoke in favor of CMP during the preliminary hearing. He verified that, based on a Planned Parenthood conference presentation, babies were being born alive at Planned Parenthood locations. When asked if Planned Parenthood’s use of large doses of the drug misoprostol in order to commit a four-day second-trimester abortion in just one day, Smith testified that Planned Parenthood abortionists “fully intend to put the uterus into labor.” He added:
“There’s no question in my mind that at least some of these fetuses were live births.”
And if feticide is not used, Smith told the court, “No question it’s alive.”
5. Planned Parenthood sold the body parts of aborted babies
Planned Parenthood has admitted that they wanted to build “mutually beneficial” procurement projects. There is also an email from Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to CMP’s undercover company “BioMax” which makes clear that Planned Parenthood was planning to accept $750 per fetal liver harvested from the children they aborted. Then, during the preliminary hearing, a nurse from Planned Parenthood Northern California admitted that she had heard of instances in which Planned Parenthood was receiving money for fetal body parts.
Q: “Were you aware that StemExpress was providing financial remuneration to Planned Parenthood of Northern California at all?”
A: “I had no knowledge of that, no.”
Q: “Do you have knowledge of it now, today, that you did not have in 2014?”
A: “I actually don’t know if Planned Parenthood Northern California was receiving any money. I have heard that there have been those cases. But I don’t know about Northern California.”
This nurse worked for Mar Monte – the wealthiest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country – which held a contract with StemExpress permitting StemExpress technicians to come into Mar Monte’s high volume facilities. The technicians would arrive with order lists specifying the number, type, and gestational age of the body parts their clients were requesting. This clearly shows that StemExpress was seeking to buy certain body parts complete with order forms from clients.
As CMP prepares to defend itself against the allegations that it broke California’s recording laws, it’s important to note that Planned Parenthood is not pursuing any lawsuits alleging defamation. Planned Parenthood is not arguing that they did not participate in the sale of aborted baby body parts, only that they were recorded doing so and they aren’t happy about that.
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