Planned Parenthood Travels the Organ Trail

Editor’s Note: Something colleges and collegians need to know before they get involved with this outfit. 

For years, Planned Parenthood has fought against late-term abortion bans. And now we know why. The earlier babies are aborted, the less profitable their parts are. That’s just one of the nauseating revelations from the undercover video that has the President’s closest allies in crisis mode. Three days and two million YouTube hits later, Planned Parenthood is in full-blown crisis mode after a three-hour recording implicated Cecile Richards’s group in a ring of baby organ harvesting. Now the organization, which has always touted every service but abortion, is being forced to talk about a savage side business that treats aborted babies as if they were junkyard cars being scavenged for parts.

It’s a difficult reality to swallow, even for the group’s cheerleaders. Texas Monthly‘s Erica Grieder, a long-time advocate of Planned Parenthood, says both sides of the debate should be horrified by what they’ve seen. “From a pro-life perspective… the discussion in the video is morally appalling, obviously. But I don’t think many pro-choice people would disagree.”

For the sake of debate, let’s say that Planned Parenthood is telling the truth about this being a legal tissue donation program, Grieder writes. “Even so,” she points out, “what Planned Parenthood is doing here violates the stated ethical principles of Planned Parenthood. When paramedics arrive at a car crash, they don’t treat injuries differently based on whether the injured person is an organ donor, as far as I know. Similarly, a physician providing an abortion should be focused on the care that they are providing to the actual patient in the room, not managing the surgical procedure with a view to minimizing ‘crushing’ that might inconvenience a researcher at some future date.”

In the most sickening detail, Planned Parenthood’s top medical director talks about manipulating the abortion procedure to yield the most marketable baby parts — often at risk to women. New York University’s Arthur Caplan, hardly a conservative, was appalled that anyone would knowingly change medical protocol to scavenge baby parts. “That’s big trouble ethically… Your sole concern has to be the mother and her health… Any deviation from normal procedures is unacceptable. If a provider is considering how to get the tissue that’s in the best shape,” he told USA Today and CNN, “that’s a huge conflict of interest.” Still think Planned Parenthood “is America’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care?”

Senate Democrats do. Three of the chamber’s liberals tried to circle the wagons around Planned Parenthood, only to admit that they haven’t even watched the video in question. Let me guess: they have to condemn it to find out what’s in it? “This was a sting operation,” argued Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). That’s true — it stung alright. And it will continue to, now that the House and Senate are launching formal investigations of this taxpayer-funded baby parts trafficking ring. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) left no doubt that Congress would respond. “If you’ve seen this video, I don’t have to tell you how sickening it is. So rest assured that we’re going to get to the bottom of this, [and] protect the values that we hold dear.”

Like most conservatives, House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley are horrified at the government’s partnership with a group that — if not criminally liable, is certainly criminally blas?? about the systematic slaughter and sale of human beings. Almost immediately, GOP leaders announced the launch of investigations into Planned Parenthood’s actions, including letters demanding hundreds of documents, notes, contracts, memos, records, correspondence, and policy guidance from Cecile Richards.

Senators Grassley and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took the case straight to the Attorney General, insisting that the Justice Department provide them “with a description of any and all actions taken by the Department to ensure compliance with the [federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban].” Other states are moving with urgency to address the threat within their own borders. Today, leaders in Georgia, Ohio, and Indiana are ordering probes of their own — joining Louisiana and Texas in the nationwide response to the video.

Until formal charges are brought, taxpayers — who have been unwilling partners in this organ mill — deserve one small courtesy: a moratorium on any and all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

Tony Perkins heads the Family Research Council. This article is excerpted from the Washington Update that he compiles for the FRC.

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