In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards argues that the undercover videos showing their top officials negotiating the sale of babies victimized in abortion are nothing more than an attack on women. She carefully sticks to her company’s talking points are reiterates that Planned Parenthood practices are completely legal.
In fact, in the op-ed Richards goes as far to say that the videos have nothing to do with her organization. Instead, they are a grand scheme by “extremists” to block access to abortion. She writes, “These attacks are not about us. They are about the ability of women across the country to access health care. Period.”
She continues, “The most recent attacks in this decades-long campaign represent a new low. These extremists created a fake business, made apparently misleading corporate filings and then used false government identifications to gain access to Planned Parenthood’s medical and research staff with the agenda of secretly filming without consent — then heavily edited the footage to make false and absurd assertions about our standards and services.”
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To put it bluntly, Richards’ comments are nothing short of outrageous considering the countless concerns the videos expose about the abortion business. For starters, if caring for women is really Planned Parenthood’s top priority, why are abortionists altering their procedures in order to obtain organs for harvesting? Clearly that fact alone reveals that their focus is somewhere other than performing the “safest” abortion possible.
This is so obvious that even liberal New York University ethicist Professor, Arthur Caplan, shared his concerns about Planned Parenthood’s motivation. He said, “In abortion the primary goal is the give the safest abortion possible. Your sole concern has to be the mother and her health and not the state of the harvested organs.”
In the first expose’ video, the buyers ask Dr. Nucatola if altering procedures really produce better results for Planned Parenthood. They ask, “How much of a difference can that actually make, if you know kind of what’s expected, or what we need?”
She replies, “It makes a huge difference. I’d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps. The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium—the head—is basically the biggest part.”
Nucatola adds, “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. And with the calvarium, in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex. 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.”
Unbelievably, Richards also says (for the third time) that the only problem with the abortionist’s comments is her “tone.” Actually, the problem is the “crushing” and the complete disregard for human life that Dr. Nucatola expresses while sipping on red wine and eating lunch. In the second video, the point of concern is that the Planned Parenthood official is seen haggling over the price of aborted babies’ body parts and joking about needing the money to buy a Lamborghini.
Of course, Richards concludes her article by listing all the life-saving services Planned Parenthood offers and highlights the exceptional care they provide for low-income women.
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She writes, “One in five women has relied on Planned Parenthood for health care in her lifetime. Those women are the victims here. Planned Parenthood patients turn to us not just because they know we uphold the highest medical standards of care but also because we are part of their local community. More than half of Planned Parenthood’s health centers are in rural or medically underserved areas. And for many low-income women, Planned Parenthood health centers are their sole source of medical care. Our health centers are lifelines that our country cannot afford to cut.”
The truth is these videos expose one of the darkest sides of the abortion industry and Richards strategy for covering it up is to attack the organization that released the videos, talk about Planned Parenthood’s “compassionate care” for women and rebuke politicians who even consider defunding their business. However, the most ridiculous part of it all is Richards believes that the American people will somehow overlook all the facts and their business will come out on the other side of this scandal unscathed.
