A day after the Senate blocked a bill seeking to defund Planned Parenthood, the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has released a fifth undercover video where a Planned Parenthood official is seen talking about the organisation's willingness to 'deviate' abortion procedures to procure intact late-term aborted foetal cadavers from babies that could have been born alive.
The video appeared to provide another proof of Planned Parenthood's participation in the illegal sale of foetal body parts. The video was taken at Planned Parenthood's Center for Choice Surgical Center, located on Gulf Freeway in Houston, Texas.
In the video, CMP undercover operatives posed as employees of a foetal tissue procurement company seeking to buy intact foetal organs from Planned Parenthood's branch in Houston, Texas.
In an edited 15:44-minute clip, Melissa Farrell, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Director of Research, said she is responsible for diversifying the group's revenue streams by working with multiple academics and researchers who study foetuses to look for intact foetal organs and complete cadavers.
"If we alter our process and we are able to obtain intact foetal cadavers, then we can make it part of the budget. I mean, it's all just a matter of line items," Farrel says in the video, which has been viewed over 500,00 times on YouTube since it was uploaded on Aug. 4.
"It's something that we can look at exploring: How we can make that happen so we have the highest chance. It will probably also require a little bit of input from the doctors. Doctors are the ones asking, directly doing that," she adds.
"And we have had studies in which the company, and or in this case, investigator, has a specific need for certain portions of the parts of conception and we base that into our contract and our protocol that we follow this, so we deviate from our standard in order to do that," Farrell says.
Farrel is also seen observing foetal remains in a pathology lab with medical staff in the video.
The video also featured Abby Johnson, former clinic director of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, who claims that their branch made about $120,000 a month selling aborted foetus tissue and organs.
However, Planned Parenthood continued to deny that it sells organs and tissue from aborted foetuses, clarifying that all figures discussed in previous videos are connected to the costs of shipping and handling.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens pointed out that the video was edited out of context.
"The latest tape has at least 20 substantial and unexplained edits. Previous tapes released by this extremist group were heavily edited in order to distort what the people on the tapes actually said," she said, according to CNN.
"These videos are intended to shock and deceive the public. For example, one video was edited to make it look like a doctor said she would 'sell' foetal tissue for a profit—when in fact, she said the exact opposite, 10 separate times, and nearly all instances were edited out of the tape," she added.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Attorney-General Maura Healey announced that after a thorough week-long review, the state found that Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts' health care centres were in compliance with state and federal laws.
"There is no evidence that Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts is involved in any way in the buying or selling of tissue. As such, our review is complete," Healey said in a statement, according to Washington Post.
The fifth CMP shock video followed a clip featuring Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains Branch Vice President and Medical Director Dr. Savita Ginde, who was shown talking about payment per organ that is extracted from aborted foetuses.
