Americans learned over the course of the summer of 2015 that Planned Parenthood executives are willing to negotiate over the prices they are paid for the body parts of unborn babies sought by researchers, including one executive who insisted that she was keeping in mind her own personal goals during the discussions over payments by stating, “I want a Lamborghini.”
Those are $200,000 plus supercars not routinely found in consumers’ driveways.
The Planned Parenthood chiefs also appeared on a number of videos willing to adjust abortion procedures to accommodate the requirements of researchers who may want a particular organ or body part, and even selling “intact” bodies.
Now the nation’s abortion behemoth has announced a lawsuit against the small organization that set up its undercover investigators with cameras to capture the telling moments for the nation to see.
The National Abortion Federation, which earlier sued the filmmakers, noted the Planned Parenthood legal action against the Center for Medical Progress, BioMax Procure Services, David Daleiden, Troy Newman and others.
“These perpetrators must be held accountable for the ways in which they committed fraud and put our members’ safety at risk,” NAF chief Vicki Saporta said in a prepared statement.
The Planned Parenthood claims were filed in San Francisco and allege the filmmakers acted illegally when they secretly recorded the Planned Parenthood executives, mostly which happened in public areas like restaurants.
Dawn Laguens, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, said, “This case is about a network of anti-abortion extremists and the laws they broke in order to spread lies and harm Planned Parenthood.”
The CMP called the action frivolous, describing it as a “last-ditch move of desperation” which is “going to expose all of the sordid dealings of the California Planned Parenthood affiliates.”
The NAF’s complaint earlier dealt specifically with videos obtained at its closed meetings. It claimed the video makers violated a confidentiality agreement in order to obtain the information, and a judge put a temporary halt on the release of those few videos.
Now comes the Planned Parenthood action over the rest of the videos.
NAF claimed the defendants “engaged in a long running conspiracy in order to gain access to abortion providers and confidential meetings. Their actions have clearly placed abortion providers at risk. Following their misleading smear campaign, we have seen an unprecedented escalation in hate speech and threats against abortion providers, including death threats.”
However, some members of Congress, where the videos already were delivered after being subpoenaed, said the legal action is simply an attempt at misdirection by Planned Parenthood, which gets nearly $500 million annually from American taxpayers.
“This is the Planned Parenthood way,” said Congressman Diane Black, a nurse of more than 40 years and a member of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus.
“They are confronted with a horrific truth they cannot defend, so they seek a victory in the courts instead. It won’t work. Thanks to the courageous efforts of the Center for Medical Progress, a veil was lifted and the American people were able to see Planned Parenthood’s callous disrespect for life with their own eyes,” she said.
“These videos have been proven to be authentic – no matter how many times Cecile Richards says otherwise – and no one can deny that they clearly depict Planned Parenthood’s own employees, in their own words, offering stunning admissions of what happens behind closed doors. Instead of attacking the messenger, perhaps it’s time for Planned Parenthood to take a good look in the mirror. This is the grim reality of today’s big abortion business and it is long past time to prevent taxpayers from being forced to foot the bill.”
The controversy recently moved into Jefferson City, Missouri, now, where state lawmakers have subpoenaed information from the chief of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood, as well as the owner of a lab that provides reports to the abortion business, and are being snubbed.
That means, according to a report in St. Louis Today, they could be facing jail time.
“Mary Kogut, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, and James Miller, owner of Brentwood-based Pathology Services, Inc., were issued subpoenas in November for documents and witnesses to appear before a Missouri Senate committee investigating the abortion and health care provider,” the report said this week.
“Neither appeared before the Senate committee or sent the documents requested, even though Miller testified a month prior in front of a House committee investigating the same matter.”
Officials with Operation Rescue, which has been active in fighting abortion across the nation, said the brewing battle may finally answer the question about whether Planned Parenthood is above the law.
“In ignoring the legislative subpoena, Planned Parenthood is sending the message that they are above the law. We hope the Missouri Senate will let Planned Parenthood know that abortion businesses are not exempted from legal compliance,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. “This is all about Planned Parenthood covering up for their own wrongdoing and has nothing to do with patient privacy.”
Newman also served on the board of the Center for Medical Progress, and was named in the lawsuit. He’s written “Abortion Free: Your Manual for Building a Pro-Life America One Community at a Time,” describing how communities can move from supporting abortion to being abortion-free.
Specifically in Missouri, Newman said that it is in the public’s interest to know why so many women are being hospitalized from botched abortions at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood.
The Missouri Senate Interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life is led by Sen. Kurt Schaefer and already has recommended contempt charges against Kogut and Miller.
“I guess there’s something they don’t want us to find out,” Schaefer said when the two parties refused to respond to the state senate.
The legislative committee is investigating Planned Parenthood and already had uncovered an illegal relationship between Missouri University and Planned Parenthood’s Columbia office that resulted the Planned Parenthood being forced to halt abortions in Columbia, Operation Rescue reported.
At issue in St. Louis are the 50 medical emergencies there, and investigators are demanding the records of the emergency ambulance trips to and from the facility.
WND has reported extensively on the videos, which were made by the Center for Medical Progress. It set itself up as a procurer of body parts to make contacts inside the abortion industry.
The negative portrayal of abortion-company executives negotiating their fees for body parts, including the expressed desire for a Lamborghini, has made a big impression across America.
Just weeks ago, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a new investigation into the fetal tissue trade.
The Washington Examiner reported the investigation was announced by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a candidate for the GOP nomination for president.
The investigation primarily will target human fetal tissue research work that is done under the direction of the National Institutes of Health.
The investigation came in response to a letter sent by Paul and nearly three dozen other senators months ago.
It was the investigation revealing the callous comments by abortion providers that prompted the outrage in Congress and beyond.
Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, has called the videos “disingenuous” even though two reviews confirmed they are accurate.
The Center for Medical Progress set up a fake company and sent investigators with concealed video cameras to Planned Parenthood clinics. Planned Parenthood officials were caught haggling over the price of baby body parts. A number of them talked about being paid per item, how they could adjust abortion procedures to salvage requested body parts and how they could create a revenue stream from such transactions.
Planned Parenthood is the abortion industry’s largest operator in the United States, conducting about 327,000 abortions annually. Federal law allows reimbursement for costs of tissue donation but no profit. Federal law also prohibits the adjustment of any abortion procedure to salvage body parts.
The videos show Planned Parenthood executives indicating that both of those standards were being violated.
In the first undercover video released by CMP, Deborah Nucatola of Planned Parenthood commented on crushing babies.
“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact,” she said. ( Source & Videos )
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