What Do the Undercover Videos of Planned Parenthood Officials Tell Us?

The Center for Medical Progress has released five undercover videos as part of an investigation into the procedures Planned Parenthood affiliates use when performing abortions and delivering aborted fetal remains to researchers.

The videos have raised several allegations, including,

The allegation that abortion doctors may be using a procedure similar to illegal, partial-birth abortion techniques in order to maximize the amount of tissue available for researchers;
The allegation that abortion doctors are violating federal law by changing the abortion procedure in order to maximize the amount of tissue available for researchers;
The allegation Planned Parenthood is selling aborted babies in violation of federal law;

With so much information surfacing so quickly because of these videos, it can be difficult to keep track of how many videos have been released and what is contained in each one. Below is a brief synopsis of each video.

1. Meeting with Dr. Debora Nucatola

The luncheon with Dr. Nucatola of Planned Parenthood was the first video released by the Center for Medical Progress. In the video, Dr. Nucatola describes how abortion procedures might be altered to increase the likelihood of procuring fetal tissue for research, and she discusses the financial compensation Planned Parenthood affiliates receive for providing the tissue. Click here to watch the video.

2. Meeting to Negotiate Tissue Prices

In its second video, the Center for Medical Progress released footage of a luncheon in which undercover actors haggled with a Planned Parenthood official over the “per-specimen” costs for fetal tissue. Click here to watch the video.

3. Interview with Former Tissue Procurement Technician

In this third video, we heard from a former tissue procurement technician who used to provide aborted fetal tissue for researchers. The video also goes inside an abortion clinic, apparently showing aborted fetal remains ready for researchers. Click here to watch the video.

4. Interview with Dr. Savita Ginde of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains

This video goes inside Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, a major Planned Parenthood affiliate located in Colorado. While the number is very low, the Planned Parenthood official featured in the video agrees that the abortion clinic does produce “intact specimens” from time to time–that is, aborted babies that are not dismembered by the abortion process. At one point, the doctor states, “Sometimes if we get–if someone delivers before we are able to see them for a procedure, then we [the baby] are intact, um, but that’s not what we go for. We try for that not to happen.”

The video does not say for sure, but “delivering” before an abortion procedure sounds chillingly like an infant born alive. As the Center for Medical Progress noted in its statement regarding the video, “Since [Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains] does not use digoxin or other feticide in its 2nd trimester procedures, any intact deliveries before an abortion are potentially born-alive infants under federal law (1 USC 8).” It is not said specifically whether that is the case, however, or whether an infant born alive would be “aborted” (i.e. murdered) after birth.

The video also goes inside the abortion clinic, showing the aborted fetal remains. Click here to watch the video.

5. Interview with Melissa Farrell, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s Director of Research

This video goes inside another Planned Parenthood facility, this time interviewing a director of research. At different points in the video, Planned Parenthood officials describe how the abortion procedure may be altered to maximize the fetal tissue available for research; how surgical abortion can be a painful procedure in spite of the conscious sedation used in the clinic; and how other Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas believe the tissue procurement program might be illegal. The video also goes inside the abortion clinic, showing the aborted fetal remains. Click here to watch the video.