WASHINGTON — The abortion giant Planned Parenthood is downplaying a video released this week by a pro-life group that shows a top Planned Parenthood director describing the organization’s harvesting and sale of fetal body parts and organs for medical research.

As previously reported, the Center for Medical Progress released the video on Tuesday as the next in its “Human Capital” investigative series, as it researches the organization’s illegal sales of fetal body parts in America. It features abortionist Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s senior director of medical services, who oversees the practices of all the 700-plus Planned Parenthood locations nationwide.

Nucatola thinks she’s having a business dinner with representatives of a fetal tissue procurement company, but what she doesn’t know is that the man and woman that she is speaking with are undercover investigators and are recording her conversation.

NUCATOLA: $30 TO $100 PER PRESERVED SPECIMEN

During the discussion, as she munches nonchalantly on salad, Nucatola explains that certain mothers who obtain abortions want the child’s parts to be donated to science, and that the abortion facilities wish to accommodate them, but “in a way that is not perceived as ‘This clinic is selling tissue. This clinic is making money off of this.'”

She then describes in detail how the organs and extremities of the aborted babies are decidedly removed intact so that they can be sold to buyers. She outlines that the organization is paid between $30 to $100 per “specimen.”

“How much of a difference can that actually make, if you know kind of what’s expected, or what we need?” the male investigator asks Nucatola, wanting to find out if Planned Parenthood can set aside certain organs for sale.

“It makes a huge difference,” she replies. “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.”

“It’s very rare to have a patient that doesn’t have enough dilation to evacuate the other parts intact,” Nucatola explains.

“To bring the body cavity out intact and all that?” the man asks.

“Exactly,” she replies. “So then you’re just kind of cognizant where you put your graspers. You try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that—-you know. We’ve been very good at getting the 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 mentions a “list” that she refers to in supplying the body parts that are in demand.

“For example, I had eight cases yesterday. And I knew exactly what we needed, and I kinda looked at this list and said, ‘Alright, this 17-weeker has 8 LAMs and this one—so I knew which were the cases that were probably more likely to yield what we needed, and I made my decisions according to that, too. So, it’s worth having a huddle at the beginning of the day, and that’s what I do.”

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: WE’RE HELPING ‘LIFESAVING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH’

But Planned Parenthood released a statement on Tuesday following public disgust over the video, downplaying the matter by stating that the organization gives women the option of having their baby’s bodies donated to medical research.

“In health care, patients sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, such as treatments and cures for serious diseases. Women at Planned Parenthood who have abortions are no different,” it wrote. “At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does—with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards.”

Contrary to Nucatola’s outline in the video that the organization is paid between $30 to $100 “per specimen,” Planned Parenthood asserted that the organization does not make money from the organs or body parts of the babies.

“There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood,” the abortion giant contended. “In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.”

Planned Parenthood asserted that the video was created with malice as it believes that its involvement in “tissue donation programs”—or supplying aborted baby organs such as the child’s heart and liver—is actually doing the world an honorable service by supporting “lifesaving scientific research.”

“A well funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research,” it wrote.

CENTER FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS: PLANNED PARENTHOOD TELLING PART TRUTH, PART LIES

The Center for Medical Progress likewise released a statement after Planned Parenthood downplayed the undercover video footage.

“Planned Parenthood makes two key admissions in their statement today: 1) aborted fetal parts are harvested at their clinics, and 2) money is exchanged in connection with this,” it wrote. “They also tell several lies: 1) That proper consent is obtained from patients, 2) That Planned Parenthood does not make money off the body parts, and 3) that everything is legal.”

Nucatola, the Planned Parenthood director featured in the video, deactivated her Twitter account following release of the footage.

The Center for Medical Progress had released the full nearly three-hour video with Nucatola in addition to the eight-minute version so as to counteract concerns about the first video being edited.

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