FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday | July 28, 2015
Contact: Jay Hobbs, Director of Communications and Marketing
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COLUMBUS, OHIO – Following on the heels of two undercover videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s involvement in what appears to be the for-profit procurement and sale of body parts from aborted babies, The Center for Medical Progress released a new video Tuesday morning, “Human Capital – Episode 1: Planned Parenthood’s Black Market in Baby Parts.”
The latest video centers around the testimony of Holly O’Donnell, identified as an “Ex-Procurement Technician for StemExpress, LLC,” the Northern California-based company whose marketing material promised Planned Parenthood affiliates “Financially Profitable” benefits of selling body parts harvested from aborted babies.
“Every life deserves to be protected,” Heartbeat International president Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., who has led the network of nearly 2,000 pregnancy help locations worldwide since 1994, said. “Aren’t we worth more than the sum of our parts? The life of a mother and her child are worth far more than an abortion facility’s bottom line. Every life deserves to be protected”
While Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider with over 327,166 abortions reported in its 2012-13 annual report, has denied selling body parts for profit—which would be a violation of federal law—Tuesday’s video provides continued evidence that the body parts harvested from aborted babies are done so with a for-profit motive.
“We were asked to procure certain tissues, like brain, liver, thymus, pancreas, heart, lungs, and pretty much anything on the fetus,” O’Donnell says in the video. “It’s basically human trafficking of fetal tissues.”
The Center for Medical Progress released its first in a series of undercover videos Tuesday, July 14, which captured Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing the harvesting of fetal organs, telling what she believed to be potential buyers that her national team had, “been very good at getting heart, lung, liver,” noting that abortion providers could “crush” the baby in such a way as to preserve certain body parts for resale.
Last Tuesday, July 21, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Medical Council President, Dr. Mary Gatter, was shown in a similar video, negotiating price points for the resale of harvested baby body parts while referring to her colleagues’ ability to use “a less crunchy technique” to get more intact body parts.
“Women deserve better than abortion,” Hartshorn said. “That is why pregnancy help centers, medical clinics, maternity homes and non-profit adoption agencies offer a mother all the information she needs to make the healthiest choice for everyone involved in an unexpected pregnancy.”
About Heartbeat International
Heartbeat International is the first network of pro-life pregnancy help organizations founded in the U.S. (1971), and now the largest and most expansive network in the world. With nearly 2,000 affiliated pregnancy help locations—including pregnancy help medical clinics (with ultrasound), resource centers, maternity homes, and adoption agencies—Heartbeat serves on all six inhabited continents to provide alternatives to abortion.