Planned Parenthood caught selling fetal tissue

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation’s largest abortion provider, sells body parts of aborted babies, according to undercover footage released by The Center for Medical Progress (CMP). The revelation has renewed calls for defunding Planned Parenthood and a congressional investigation into the abortion giant’s practices.

CMP produced the video as a part of its “Human Capital” series, the result of a three-year investigation into Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue trafficking. In the nine-minute video (see below), Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood, tells actors posing as fetal tissue buyers that Planned Parenthood sells “specimens” for $30 to $100, indicating late-term abortions are the preferred method for collection.

Nucatola, who has held her position since 2009, oversees the medical practices at all Planned Parenthood affiliates and trains new abortionists. She also performs abortions in Los Angeles on babies up to 24 weeks gestation.

In the video, Nucatola says abortionists use ultrasounds to guide their forceps during procedures to ensure valuable pieces, like the liver and heart, stay intact. But the head poses the biggest problem because it’s the largest piece.

“With the calvarium [head], in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex,” she said. “So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end.”

The procedure Nucatola describes is identical to the process used in illegal partial-birth abortions, CMP said. Late-term abortions produce more valuable parts for tissue buyers.

“Perhaps that is one reason why the nation’s largest abortion provider fights limiting abortions at a point at which abortions become so dangerous to women as well as the unborn child,” said Americans United for Life president Charmaine Yoest.

Partial-birth abortions are punishable by a fine up to $250,000 and up to two years in prison. In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the ban in the case Gonzales v. Carhart. The United States also bans the sale or purchase of human fetal tissues, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.

Due to the legal climate, Nucatola told the undercover “buyers” Planned Parenthood is concerned about its liability.

“At the national office, we have a Litigation and Law Department, which just really doesn’t want us to be the middle people for this issue right now,” she said. “But I will tell you that behind closed doors these conversations are happening with the affiliates.”

Later in the video, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards added her praise for Nucatola and the future transactions between the posed buyers and Planned Parenthood.

“Oh good,” she said of Nucatola. “She’s amazing.”

Richards’ approbation suggests she knows about the tissue sales, according to CMP.

“Planned Parenthood’s criminal conspiracy to make money off of aborted baby parts reaches to the very highest levels of their organization,” said CMP project leader David Daleiden. “Elected officials must listen to the public outcry for Planned Parenthood to be held accountable to the law and for our tax dollars to stop underwriting the barbaric abortion business.”

Pro-life leaders including Yoest and Live Action founder Lila Rose have called for a congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood’s practices and for defunding the organization. CMP also has started a petition.

“Planned Parenthood’s barbaric practices reveal their contempt for rule of law and human life,” Rose said. “This latest expose of Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of baby parts for profit should be the final nail in the coffin for the abortion giant.”