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NEW VIDEO: Stop Human Trafficking of Aborted Infants

On the six-year anniversary of its undercover video series catching top Planned Parenthood leadership negotiating the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts, The Center for Medical Progress released a new summary video of the results of its reporting, a re-release of the uncut footage of the undercover encounters that Planned Parenthood accuses of being “heavily edited” or “doctored”, and the following statement:

Six years ago, The Center for Medical Progress began releasing a series of undercover videos that caught top-level Planned Parenthood leadership trafficking and selling aborted baby body parts. The videos documented the horrifying facts about fetal trafficking and experimentation and pushed these barbaric practices out into the light in a public conversation that continues to the present day.

The videos shut down Planned Parenthood’s baby body parts companies in southern California: Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, DaVinci Biosciences, LLC, and DV Biologics, LLC. The DaVinci companies admitted illegally selling aborted fetal body parts from Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties and were shut down in a $7.8 million settlement with the local District Attorney, who credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful prosecution.

The Texas Inspector General’s Office found violations of medical standards and ethics in illegal fetal tissue trafficking on the videos at Planned Parenthood, and Texas terminated Planned Parenthood from state Medicaid based on the wrongdoing documented in the recordings. Planned Parenthood sued Texas claiming the videos showed no wrongdoing, and twice the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that the undercover videos were an accurate, authentic, and reliable basis to disqualify Planned Parenthood from taxpayer funding. On May 13, 2021, Planned Parenthood dropped their lawsuit and surrendered to the defending based on the videos.

CMP’s undercover videos also prompted an ongoing FBI and U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Planned Parenthood and others for illegal transfers of aborted fetal tissue.

The full truth about government-sponsored human trafficking of aborted infants has yet to be revealed. Planned Parenthood and their powerful political allies have retaliated viciously against the publication of the videos, in a telling admission of how badly they got caught and how damning and incriminating the full truth will be. Today, we demand that the human trafficking of aborted infants and their body parts stop and that public officials at all levels bring those responsible to justice under the law.

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NEW VIDEO: Government-Sponsored Fetal Experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW VIDEO EXPOSES GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED TRAFFICKING OF ABORTED BABIES AT PITT WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Tomorrow, David Daleiden of The Center for Medical Progress Will Testify About Fetal Experimentation Before Pennsylvania House Committee on Health

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

PITTSBURGH, May 3–The Center for Medical Progress released a detailed new video today documenting shocking government-sponsored experiments on aborted human fetuses at the University of Pittsburgh, and the local Planned Parenthood’s participation in the fetus trafficking.

Publicly available information demonstrates that Pitt hosts some of the most barbaric experiments carried out on aborted human infants, including scalping 5-month-old aborted fetuses to stitch onto lab rats, exporting fetal kidneys across the country, and killing infants delivered alive for liver harvesting–funded by U.S. taxpayers via the National Institutes of Health, and in particular Dr. Anthony Fauci’s NIAID office.

Local Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania abortion providers supply the aborted fetuses, while Pitt sponsors the local Planned Parenthood’s operations, in what looks like an illegal Quid Pro Quo for fetal body parts, forbidden by 42 U.S. Code 289g-2 and 18 Pennsylvania Statutes 3216. Pennsylvania law also makes it a felony to experiment on a living fetus or to fail to provide immediate medical care to an infant born alive.

Tomorrow, David Daleiden, founder and chief executive of the Center for Medical Progress, will testify at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Health Committee hearing on “Fetal Experimentation”, where he will discuss the fetal trafficking at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood Western Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh’s Dean of the School of Medicine, Dr. Anantha Shekhar, is also expected to testify.

Who:
-The University of Pittsburgh, Planned Parenthood, CMP, and David Daleiden

What:
-CMP releases new video: “Government-Sponsored Fetal Experimentation at the University of Pittsburgh and Planned Parenthood”
-Daleiden testifies before Pennsylvania House Health Committee hearing: “Fetal Experimentation”

When:
-Video Release: Today, Monday May 3, 8:00 a.m. Eastern
-Testimony: Tuesday, May 4; 8:30 a.m. – 11 a.m. Eastern

Where:
-Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JUzqswKZs
-Testimony: https://livestream.com/pahousegop

David Daleiden is available for further comment or interviews today and anytime after Tuesday’s testimony. Please email media@centerformedicalprogress.org or call 949.734.0859.

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Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JUzqswKZs

To learn more about CMP, visit www.centerformedicalprogress.org

Undercover Investigators with Planned Parenthood Videos Appeal $16 Million Retaliation Lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATORS WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD VIDEOS APPEAL $16 MILLION RETALIATION LAWSUIT
Planned Parenthood Sued The Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, Others for Releasing Videos of Aborted Baby Body Parts Sales, But Did Not Allege Defamation

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

SAN FRANCISCO, Mar. 1—Over the weekend, The Center for Medical Progress, David Daleiden, and CMP’s undercover investigators filed their opening briefs on appeal at the federal Ninth Circuit, seeking reversal of Planned Parenthood’s $16 million retaliation lawsuit over CMP’s release of undercover videos, which show Planned Parenthood leadership callously negotiating the sale of aborted fetus body parts.

After the release of the videos in 2015, Planned Parenthood faced Congressional investigations and criminal and regulatory referrals to state, federal, and local officials over its participation in illegal transfers of human fetal tissue for valuable consideration (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). Business partners in Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue program in southern California admitted illegally selling fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood and were shut down in a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney, who credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful prosecution. But in January 2016, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court in retaliation for the undercover videos, suing for fraud, trespass, unlawful recording, and breach of contract and seeking damages of over $20 million—but conspicuously refused to bring a claim for defamation.

The judge, William Orrick III, initially slashed that number down to barely $400,000 in consultant fees, but then allowed a San Francisco jury to triple it under the federal RICO statute and add nearly $1 million in punitive damages. Then Judge Orrick himself added $13 million in attorneys fees.

Over 4 different opening briefs filed at the Ninth Circuit on Friday, CMP, Daleiden, the undercover investigators, and other co-defendants argue and alert the federal appeals court:

  • Judge Orrick allowed Planned Parenthood to make an end run around the First Amendment, where Planned Parenthood sued for research and management costs stemming from the release of the undercover videos, but did not prove in court the videos were false or defamatory—in fact, Planned Parenthood admitted in court the videos were authentic. Judge Orrick’s $16 million fine for the videos and injunction against further investigation awarded to Planned Parenthood, without any defamation claim, are a threat to all undercover reporting.

  • In allowing Planned Parenthood’s case to go forward without proving the video reporting was false, Judge Orrick denied CMP’s First Amendment rights and protections for speech, blocked significant discovery on Planned Parenthood’s fetal research practices, and forbade any Defense based on the truth of the video reporting.

  • Judge Orrick excluded the expert testimony of Dr. Forrest O. Smith, the longest continuously practicing abortion provider in the United States, who testified the videos are evidence infants are being delivered alive and killed through organ harvesting in Planned Parenthood’s fetal research programs.

  • Judge Orrick allowed Planned Parenthood to sue CMP for “fraud” and “breach of contract” for operating a “fake” fetal tissue company, when the “real” fetal tissue companies Planned Parenthood was contracting with like DaVinci Biosciences were admittedly criminal.

  • Planned Parenthood’s fraud, trespass, and RICO claims presented no evidence to distinguish CMP investigators’ undercover networking with the abortion industry from pure speech protected by the First Amendment, and 9th Circuit and Supreme Court precedent. The “fake IDs” shown by some investigators were creative props never used for government ID purposes and cannot be the basis for a tripled RICO fine.

  • Planned Parenthood’s “breach of contract” claims are based on standardized tradeshow agreements for exhibit booth space, which concluded with the end of each tradeshow and where undercover investigators ran exhibit booths without incident or injury.

  • The undercover video recordings at issue in the case were all made of professional conversations in public areas where third parties easily overheard—yet Judge Orrick would not allow the Defense to play the full videos of the conversations to the jury.

  • David Daleiden led and managed the entire undercover project and video release, with investigative contractors playing limited roles and former CMP board directors minimally involved. But Planned Parenthood picked and chose without evidence who to sue for money based on Planned Parenthood’s own conspiracy theories.

  • One undercover investigator did not identify as pro-life and used his own name and ID to attend Planned Parenthood tradeshows—yet Orrick still allowed Planned Parenthood to sue him for “fraud” and “trespass” because he assisted a pro-life publication. Judge Orrick then punished the other Defendants further for actually subscribing to pro-life advocacy. The real “crime” in Orrick’s courtroom was pro-life speech, and guilt by association with it.

  • Judge Orrick helped open and operate a Planned Parenthood abortion referral clininc in San Francisco that brought in $100,000/year to a non-profit center that Orrick directed. Orrick’s Planned Parenthood clinic referred pregnant patients to the same Planned Parenthood fetal tissue program with StemExpress that CMP’s reporting exposed. During the lawsuits in his courtroom, Judge Orrick’s wife’s Facebook account used a photo of him to “Like” posts calling CMP and Daleiden’s reporting “domestic terrorism” and calling for Daleiden’s criminal prosecution. CMP and Daleiden sought to have Judge Orrick disqualified from the case, but Orrick refused to step down, refused to disclose his relationship with Planned Parenthood, and attempted to influence another judge to keep him on the case.

Daleiden notes, “Planned Parenthood got caught selling aborted baby body parts in the undercover videos, and their fetal trafficking programs have started to be held accountable. Yet because of a biased federal judge, who previously helped run a Planned Parenthood clinic in the fetal trafficking network, Planned Parenthood has been allowed to sue me and CMP for successfully reporting the facts while blocking us from defending ourselves.”

Daleiden continues, “The animus against free speech about abortion and fetal trafficking was palapable in Judge Orrick’s courtroom, where no evidence against Planned Parenthood would be admitted and the real ‘crime’ is being pro-life. This judgment does not reflect equality or fairness and puts freedom of the press and the rule of law at risk for all Americans. This judgment must be reversed.”

Charles LiMandri of LiMandri & Jonna, special counsel to the Thomas More Society and lead trial counsel in the case, states, “Following the mockery of a trial in this case, I wrote an article in November 2019 to explain why the defense had such a strong record for appeal. The appellate briefs filed for David Daleiden and the other defendants on Friday, February 26, 2021, reflect the full strength of that appellate record. The issues in this case are vitally important for our constitutional freedoms of speech and the press, as well as the future of undercover journalism in our nation. David Daleiden and his co-defendants deserve to be rewarded for their courageous efforts to expose the atrocities of Planned Parenthood’s illegal trafficking in aborted baby body parts. Instead, a biased trial court hamstrung their defense with extremely one-sided rulings resulting in a monstrously unjust verdict in favor of Planned Parenthood. We are looking forward to finally obtaining justice for our heroic clients through the appellate process. Ultimately, it is Planned Parenthood that must answer for its heinous crimes against humanity.”

Harmeet Dhillon of the Dhillon Law Group, representing Daleiden and CMP, states, “This appeal implicates fundamental First Amendment values and further important legal issues of broad relevance beyond this case. This unprecedented, draconian treatment of undercover journalists amounts to selective censorship and punishment of pro-life views. Planned Parenthood refused to try the veracity of the undercover videos before the jury, yet this favored litigant was allowed to reap a windfall in defamation-style damages while our clients were blocked from mounting a full defense. The future of investigative journalism in the Ninth Circuit may well turn on the outcome of this case.”

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To learn more about CMP’s undercover reporting visit: centerformedicalprogress.org

Unsealed Sworn Testimony Shows Planned Parenthood Lied to Congress About Fetal Tissue Sales

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNSEALED SWORN TESTIMONY SHOWS PLANNED PARENTHOOD LIED TO CONGRESS ABOUT FETAL TISSUE SALES
VP of Research Testifies that Houston Branch Sold the Entire Fetus to Local University, Not “Only” the Placenta as PPFA Claimed

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

IRVINE, Oct. 29–The Center for Medical Progress released a fourth video today featuring unsealed video clips from Planned Parenthood leaders’ sworn deposition testimony about the abortion provider’s fetal tissue research programs–including details about the programs that directly contradict what Planned Parenthood told multiple Congressional investigations in 2015 and 2016.

While under investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee and House Select Investigative Panel, Planned Parenthood told Congress that its Houston, TX affiliate, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, never had a “fetal” tissue research program–only a “placental” tissue program–with researchers at University of Texas Medical Branch. Based on this representation, Planned Parenthood produced less documentation of PPGC’s practices than other regional offices in California.

But when questioned under oath about the transactions with UTMB, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s Vice President for Research, Melissa Farrell, testifies that her Planned Parenthood office in fact transferred the entire aborted fetus to UTMB, not just the placenta. Farrell testifies that in previous fetal tissue transactions, PPGC transferred the “products of conception” from the abortion–the fetus, placenta, and everything removed in the abortion–“in its entirety.” When asked, “What specimens are then conveyed to UTMB under the contract?” Farrell replies, “Products of conception,” and when asked, “Was it the entire products of conception from the abortion procedure?” she answers, “That is my understanding, yes.”

Contracts between PPGC and UTMB show the abortion provider charging $150 per successful fetal tissue specimen transfer to the university. The State of Texas disqualified the Planned Parenthood network from the state Medicaid program based on CMP’s undercover footage showing PPGC willing to change abortion procedures to get more intact fetal specimens to transfer for valuable consideration, and the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the termination, finding that CMP’s undercover footage is authentic and accurate evidence that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast committed partial-birth abortions to sell fetal tissue.

The video also includes testimony from Dr. Katharine Sheehan, the longtime Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest in San Diego and Riverside in southern California. Dr. Sheehan testifies that PPPSW has an ongoing relationship to provide fetal organs and tissues to middleman wholesaler Advanced Bioscience Resources, but she also reveals that PPPSW simultaneously has direct fetal tissue supply relationships with a local research institution and the researchers working there. Published experimental studies from UC San Diego thank Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest for providing aborted fetal tissue. In 2018, the Health and Human Services Department terminated an FDA contract with ABR for fetal tissue because it was “not sufficiently assured” that ABR complied with the federal law against selling fetal tissue (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).

The video also shows further testimony from Dr. Mary Gatter, for many years the Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles responsible for the fetal tissue program with the wholesaler business Novogenix Laboratories, LLC, which closed down during the scrutiny of the Congressional investigations. When Dr. Gatter is asked a similar question as Dr. Sheehan as to whether PPLA also had researchers other than the Novogenix company come “to collect” fetal specimens, Dr. Gatter at first testifies, “Not as far I am aware.” Then, Dr. Gatter testifies, “Can I just–let me, I’d like to amend that, to say, there is a difference between tissue collection for a big organization, that they collect the tissue–a tissue procurement organization–and a specific research project. Now, we may in fact have been involved in specific research projects, but that’s a whole different category from fetal tissue donation.” Dr. Gatter testifies that she was responsible for “research projects” at PPLA and securing approval from the national Planned Parenthood Federation of America Research Department for these studies. But when asked to clarify, “Those research projects may have included projects that involved fetal tissue?” Dr. Gatter testifies, “I cannot remember.”

Last month, 49 Congressional representatives wrote to the Department of Justice demanding an investigation of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast based on revelations in the sworn deposition testimony. Over the summer, 28 U.S. Senators wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr demanding an update on action the Department of Justice has taken to enforce the laws against trafficking in human fetuses and other violations. In May, the Small Business Administration demanded 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates return $80 million in federal relief loans they fraudulently certified they were eligible for. In late 2017, the DOJ announced it had opened a federal investigation following criminal referrals by Congress of Planned Parenthood and their business partners. The same week, two southern California companies admitted guilt for illegally selling body parts from Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties in a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney.

CMP founder and project lead David Daleiden notes, “When the undercover videos were first released, Planned Parenthood delivered a carefully-constructed script to the public and to the press minimizing their involvement in fetal experimentation–but under oath, their story changes. Now we know that Planned Parenthood flagrantly lied to the United States Congress about the extent of its abortion clinics’ criminal trafficking in fetal body parts for experimentation. How long will public officials continue to allow them to get away with it?”

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Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsxgNV_RlnA

View more documents and testimony here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/fetal-trafficking-under-oath/

To learn more about CMP, visit: www.CMP.org

NEW VIDEO: Planned Parenthood and Kamala Harris Colluded to Weaponize CA Video Recording Law Against Disfavored Speech

 

The Center for Medical Progress released a new video today explaining how Kamala Harris, as California Attorney General, colluded with Planned Parenthood to weaponize California’s video recording law to punish CMP’s undercover reporting on Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue harvesting and research programs. The six-minute video features CMP founder and president David Daleiden, who developed and orchestrated the organization’s 30-month-long undercover studyof Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry’s participation in the illegal sale of body parts from aborted fetuses, describing how at the behest of Planned Parenthood, Kamala Harris had California DOJ agents raid his home to try to stop him from publishing undercover reports. Daleiden says in the new video: “I’m not the first person to ever record undercover video in California,” which shows examples of local TV news journalists and activists recording and publishing undercover video reports in the state. “Yet somehow, I have become the first person to ever have the California video recording law enforced against me for news gathering,” Daleiden continues.

Less than two weeks before the April 5, 2016 raid on Daleiden’s home to seize the videos, Kamala Harris met in person with several Planned Parenthood executives, including the lead abortion doctor at Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties, whose fetal tissue program was then under investigation by local law enforcement. PPOSBC’s business partners, DaVinci Biosciences, admitted guilt for illegally selling body parts from Planned Parenthood and were shut down in a $7.8 million settlement, and the Orange County District Attorney credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful case.

“It’s pretty obvious that the reason that I alone was targeted by Kamala Harris was because I dared to criticize Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. What Kamala Harris did isn’t treating people fairly or equally under the video recording law,” notes Daleiden in the video. In May, Daleiden and CMP filed a civil rights lawsuit against Kamala Harris, Planned Parenthood, and the California Attorney General’s Office in Los Angeles federal court for conspiracy to violate First Amendment freedoms.

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CMP and Daleiden Sue Planned Parenthood for Calling Fetal Body Parts Videos “Fake”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNDERCOVER FILMMAKER SUES PLANNED PARENTHOOD FOR CALLING FETAL BODY PARTS VIDEOS “FAKE”
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, in Press Statements and on Twitter, Claimed Undercover Videos “Manufacture a Fake” and “Created a False Smear Campaign”

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

NEW YORK, September 17–The Center for Medical Progress and its founder David Daleiden, responsible for the 2015 undercover video series exposing top Planned Parenthood leadership negotiating the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts, are suing Planned Parenthood Federation of America for defamation in New York federal court after PPFA falsely and repeatedly accused the filmmakers of “manufacture[d]”, “fake”, and “false” undercover video reporting.

In sworn deposition testimony in 2019, top Planned Parenthood officials admitted that their own actual statements were captured by the undercover video recordings. PPFA itself stipulated during a federal court trial that the words used by Planned Parenthood officials in the undercover videos “were spoken by those persons”.

Yet on September 18, 2019, PPFA issued a press statement claiming Daleiden and CMP filmed and published undercover video “to manufacture a fake smear campaign against Planned Parenthood”. On November 15, 2019, PPFA tweeted that Daleiden and CMP “created a false smear campaign against Planned Parenthood”.

After 30 months of undercover work, CMP began releasing its undercover video footage of documenting Planned Parenthood and its business partners’ participation in the harvesting and sale of human fetuses and their body parts from abortions. With each video release, CMP posted the full footage of the conversation with the Planned Parenthood representative, alongside a shorter summary version presenting the most significant parts of the conversation.

In the first video release, PPFA’s then Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, suggested prices “per-specimen” of fetal tissue, and advised that in her Planned Parenthood clinics, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know, 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.” Dr. Nucatola also described using ultrasound guidance to flip the position of a living fetus to feet-first in order to extract the fetus whole, remarking, “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 [head] at the end,” and concluding, “We’ve been pretty successful with that, I’d say.”

The U.S. Department of Justice announced three years ago it had opened a federal investigation of Planned Parenthood and its business partners for selling fetal tissue based on criminal referrals from Congress, prompted by CMP’s undercover videos. Two of Planned Parenthood’s business partners in Orange County, CA then admitted guilt for illegally selling aborted tissue from Planned Parenthood in a $7.8 million settlement, and the Orange County District Attorney credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful case. In September 2018, the Department of Health and Human Services terminated its contracts with Planned Parenthood partner Advanced Bioscience Resources because it could not be “sufficiently assured” that ABR’s supply complied with the federal law against selling fetal tissue (42 U.S.C. 289g-2). In January 2019, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled based on forensic analysis that CMP’s undercover footage was accurate, authentic, reliable evidence that Planned Parenthood committed partial-birth abortions and changed abortions in order to sell fetal tissue.

CMP president David Daleiden states, “Planned Parenthood admits my videos are true when under oath in federal court, but when speaking to the public, Planned Parenthood lies and calls the videos fake. I have put my life on hold for five years to report, with video evidence, the trafficking of aborted infants that I and others witnessed at the highest levels of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. It is time for Planned Parenthood to face the truth.”

Harmeet Dhillon, counsel for Daleiden and CMP, notes, “Planned Parenthood has tremendous power and influence in our society. But even it must adhere to legal norms. We filed this lawsuit to hold PPFA accountable for damaging falsehoods it uttered concerning our clients’ groundbreaking journalism that exposed shocking practices it would rather keep hidden — for good reason. Planned Parenthood is not above the law. We look forward to the merits litigation of this lawsuit.”

“Instead of coming clean about its ruthless pursuit of profit from selling the remains of aborted children, Planned Parenthood tried to smear David Daleiden, the man who blew the whistle on its dirty secret,” says Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Thomas More Society, representing Daleiden. “In its earlier lawsuit against David and the Center for Medical Progress, Planned Parenthood fought to avoid scrutiny of its illegal fetal tissue trafficking. This new lawsuit puts Planned Parenthood’s grisly business practices front and center, to prove the truth of the conclusions of David’s investigation, which were also confirmed and echoed by the United States Congress and other government officials.”

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To watch CMP’s undercover video series, visit: centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage

Learn more about Planned Parenthood’s admissions under oath here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/fetal-trafficking-under-oath/ 

To learn more about CMP, visit: CenterforMedicalProgress.org

Planned Parenthood Sworn Video Testimony Admits Using Partial-Birth Abortions to Sell Baby Parts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD SWORN VIDEO TESTIMONY ADMITS USING PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTIONS TO SELL BABY PARTS
Senior Executive Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Featured in First Undercover Video, Admits PPLA Clinics Were “Pretty Successful” With Feet-First, Intact Extraction of Living Fetuses

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

IRVINE, Aug. 24–The Center for Medical Progress released a third video today featuring unsealed video clips from top Planned Parenthood leaders’ sworn deposition testimony about the way Planned Parenthood abortion doctors change abortions to harvest more usable fetal organs and tissues.

The new video includes unsealed deposition testimony from Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services from 2009 to 2016, who now holds regional leadership positions with the organization.

Dr. Nucatola famously described Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue research programs, casually over wine and salad at a crowded Los Angeles restaurant, in CMP’s first undercover video release in 2015. In the undercover video, Dr. Nucatola described using ultrasound guidance to flip a fetus to a feet-first position for intact extraction and successful organ harvesting at Planned Parenthood. Yet when questioned by Congressional investigators, Dr. Nucatola denied that such abortions were used in Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue research programs.

But under oath in her deposition, Dr. Nucatola confirms, “If I was aware that it was a donation case, yes” she would change where she grasped the fetus with her forceps in order not to crush certain organs. When asked about her description of flipping a fetus to breech position in order to obtain intact organs, Dr. Nucatola first seems to deny doing so. But when confronted with her conclusion on the undercover tape, “We’ve been pretty successful with that,” Dr. Nucatola admits, “I was referring to PPLA.” Asked if that included herself, Dr. Nucatola testifies, “Yes, including me, I worked at PPLA.”

Using ultrasound guidance to manipulate the fetus from vertex to breech orientation before intact extraction is the hallmark of the illegal partial-birth abortion procedure (18 U.S.C. 1531), which attempts to draw a brightline between abortion and infanticide by criminalizing the intact extraction of a living fetus for the purpose of killing the child afterward.

The new video also shows testimony from Tram Nguyen, Vice President of Abortion Access at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston, TX. The federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found in 2019 that CMP’s undercover footage of Nguyen admitting Planned Parenthood could sign a statement disclaiming “intent” to perform an intact extraction abortion, and then go on to procure an intact fetus, was forensically authentic and accurate evidence that Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast had committed partial-birth abortions. Under oath, when shown the video clip and asked if it was her understanding that an abortion provider could provide an intact fetus so long as the form was signed, Nguyen testifies, “Yes,” and when asked if it is true that intact abortions occur in spite of the form, Nguyen admits, “It is true.”

The new video also includes testimony from Dr. Mary Gatter, former medical director for PPLA, admitting that after internal debate in the organization, she “evolved” in her thinking to believe that changing abortion “techniques” in order to harvest higher quality fetal tissue was acceptable. Dr. Gatter testifies that Planned Parenthood makes a distinction between the abortion “technique” and the abortion “procedure,” and that changing the former is allowed while changing the latter is not. The federal law at 42 U.S.C. 289g-1 prohibits any changes to the “procedures used to terminate the pregnancy,” and not simply “the procedure” as a singular category.

Earlier this month, 28 U.S. Senators wrote to Attorney General Bill Barr demanding an update on action the Department of Justice has taken to enforce the laws against trafficking in human fetuses and other violations. In May, the Small Business Administration demanded 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates return $80 million in federal relief loans they fraudulently certified they were eligible for. In late 2017, the DOJ announced it had opened a federal investigation following criminal referrals by Congress of Planned Parenthood and their business partners. The same week, two southern California companies admitted guilt for illegally selling body parts from Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties in a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney.

CMP founder and project lead David Daleiden notes, “Planned Parenthood reflexively proclaims innocence to the public and to a compliant establishment press, but when Planned Parenthood abortion leadership is placed under oath, they testify to crimes against women and infants. Criminality in the national taxpayer-funded abortion industry will continue to spread unless federal authorities hold them accountable once and for all.”

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Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POdbu4bp5rQ

View more documents and testimony here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/fetal-trafficking-under-oath/

To learn more about CMP, visit: www.CMP.org

Sworn Video Testimony Describes Infanticide in Fetal Organ Harvesting and Planned Parenthood Clinics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SWORN VIDEO TESTIMONY DESCRIBES INFANTICIDE IN FETAL ORGAN HARVESTING AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD CLINICS

Under Oath, Procurement Manager Testifies Fetuses “Just Fall Out,” Hearts Beating when Harvested; Planned Parenthood Execs Admit Infants Born Alive and Left to Die in Clinics Depending on “Availability of Interventions”

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

IRVINE, June 30–The Center for Medical Progress released a second video today featuring unsealed video clips from Planned Parenthood and abortion industry officials’ sworn deposition testimony, with disturbing descriptions of infants born alive and either harvested for organs or left to die inside abortion clinics.

The new video includes unsealed deposition testimony from Perrin Larton, the Procurement Manager of Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. (ABR), which harvests fetal organs and tissues inside Planned Parenthood clinics in southern California and resells them to taxpayer-sponsored researchers across the country. Larton testified about the fetuses ABR harvests that “They just, sometimes they fall out” of the abortion patient when the patient delivers the fetus entirely intact in the operating room, “once every couple months.” Larton further testified that the fetus is still intact when she receives it in the clinic laboratory and nothing is “done to the fetus” by the abortion provider before providing it intact to Larton, at which point she testified that ABR will “do a dissection to get the tissues that the researchers have requested.” When asked if the intact fetuses that just “fall out” in the operating room have a heartbeat, Larton testified, “It would depend,” because “I can see hearts that are not in an intact P.O.C. [product of conception, fetus] that are beating independently” after removal from the fetus. 

The video also features testimony from Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the previous Senior Director of Medical Services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America who continues to hold regional leadership positions in the organization. When asked if she had “ever had a patient deliver in the operating room a non-viable fetus,” Dr. Nucatola testified, “I’m sure I have.” Asked to define “non-viable,” Dr. Nucatola testified a “non-viable” fetus would be “a fetus that’s not capable of survival.” When asked how to determine whether or not a fetus was viable, Dr. Nucatola testified, “It depends on where you work,” and explained that “the availability of interventions” was one of the criteria she would use to determine whether or not a fetus delivered in the operating room was “viable” or “capable of survival.” During her tenure as Senior Director of Medical Services for PPFA, Dr. Nucatola was responsible for setting PPFA’s national Medical Standards & Guidelines and she performed abortions at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles to provide fetal organs to Novogenix Laboratories, LLC.

The video also includes testimony from Jon Dunn, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties, which was partnered with the admitted criminal fetal tissue companies DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics for nearly 8 years. Dunn testified that he was aware of at least one situation at his Planned Parenthood where a fetus had been born alive during an abortion: “I know they kept it warm and comfortable for the very brief period that it was alive. I don’t think there was even time to call 911.” Dunn also testified that, “This is something that every obstetrician/gynecologist deals with on rare occasion” and “It is their medical judgment what to do in that circumstance.”

Last month, the Small Business Administration demanded 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates return $80 million in federal relief loans they fraudulently certified they were eligible for, and 27 Senators called on Attorney General Bill Barr to broaden the U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Planned Parenthood affiliates’ activities. Last week, 67 Congressmen wrote to the DOJ demanding an update on the DOJ’s follow-up on Congressional criminal referrals for Planned Parenthood and their business partners.

CMP project lead David Daleiden asks, “How long will public authorities permit Planned Parenthood and their associates to sell living children inside and outside the womb and then kill them through organ harvesting? The DOJ has vigorously prosecuted the sale of eagle body parts. Surely selling human body parts after cutting them out of an infant with a beating heart is at least as grave of a crime.”

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Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHh5IFXao-4

View the documents and testimony here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/fetal-trafficking-under-oath/

To learn more about CMP, visit: www.CMP.org

Planned Parenthood Testimony On Selling Baby Parts Unsealed, New Videos Released

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PLANNED PARENTHOOD TESTIMONY ON SELLING BABY PARTS UNSEALED, NEW VIDEOS RELEASED

Planned Parenthood Officials Testified Under Oath About Financial Incentives in Fetal Tissue Research Programs in Abortion Giant’s Own Lawsuit

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

IRVINE, May 26–The Center for Medical Progress, whose undercover videos exposed Planned Parenthood leadership negotiating the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts, released a new video today featuring Planned Parenthood officials’ sworn videotaped testimony about the sales.

The new video release documents the Planned Parenthood officials’ admissions, which came in Planned Parenthood’s own retaliatory lawsuit over the undercover footage and contradict Planned Parenthood’s public claims about both the undercover videos and the abortion provider’s fetal tissue research programs. The testimony was unsealed this spring.

The video shows how Planned Parenthood Federation of America, while under investigation in 2015, told Congress that its Gulf Coast affiliate in Houston had “rebuffed” an undercover proposal to sell fetal livers for $750 per liver and $1600 for liver/thymus pairs. But Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast‘s Senior Director of Abortion Access, Tram Nguyen, testified that she “wanted to move forward with it,” as documented in contemporaneous emails between her and PPGC’s Regional Director Dyann Santos.

The video also features sworn testimony from Dr. Dorothy Furgerson, the longtime Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country. Dr. Furgerson signed PPMM’s contract with StemExpress to sell fetal body parts to StemExpress per specimen “determined in the clinic to be usable”, and Dr. Furgerson’s endorsement appears on a StemExpress brochure handed out at National Abortion Federation meetings advertising “fiscal[] rewards” and “financial profits” to the abortion clinics who provided fetal tissue to StemExpress. When asked if the purpose of the brochure was “to obtain more potential sources of fetal tissue,” Dr. Furgerson testified, “Yes, I understood that that’s what they were trying to do.”

The video shows StemExpress paid Planned Parenthood solely based on the number of “usable” samples that StemExpress could harvest from PPMM’s abortions, at least an extra $65 per abortion if the customer ordered a fetal organ plus a blood sample. PPMM does over 17,000 abortions a year, and unsealed invoices show PPMM making $25,000 in just 3 months from StemExpress. When asked how much money an abortion clinic could make per year from selling fetal body parts, the founder and CEO of Planned Parenthood partner Advanced Bioscience Resources, Linda Tracy, was forbidden by her lawyer to answer.

The video also includes testimony from Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the Senior Director of Medical Services for PPFA from the first undercover video release. When asked when she first found out about Planned Parenthood affiliates “receiving payments for fetal tissue”, Dr. Nucatola testified, “I knew [Planned Parenthood Los Angeles] was getting payments because I was a provider there,” yet testified she never felt the need to check PPLA’s compliance with PPFA policies. Dr. Mary Gatter, the former PPLA Medical Director who established the relationship with “for-profit” biotech company Novogenix, testified that PPFA provided a “waiver” for PPLA to begin the program.

42 U.S. Code 289g-2 broadly forbids the exchange of valuable consideration for fetal tissue. After investigating Planned Parenthood and companies like StemExpress and ABR for over a year, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel made criminal referrals for Planned Parenthood and their business partners to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice. In late 2017, the DOJ announced it had opened a federal investigation, and two southern California companies admitted guilt to selling body parts from Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties against the law in a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney.

Last week, the Small Business Administration demanded 37 Planned Parenthood affiliates return $80 million in federal relief loans they fraudulently certified they were eligible for, and 27 Senators called on Attorney General Bill Barr to broaden the DOJ investigation of the Planned Parenthood affiliates’ activities.

CMP project lead David Daleiden notes: “The time has come for federal consequences for Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood lied to the public and to Congress, but now there is no longer any reasonable doubt that Planned Parenthood sold fetal body parts, commodifying living children in the womb and treating pregnant women like a cash crop. The U.S. Department of Justice must escalate the enforcement of laws against fetal trafficking to the highest level of priority.”

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Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgUULMCzm8c

View the documents and testimony here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/fetal-trafficking-under-oath/

To learn more about CMP, visit: www.CMP.org

CMP and Daleiden Sue Planned Parenthood, Kamala Harris, CA AG Becerra for Violating Civil Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNDERCOVER VIDEOMAKER SUES PLANNED PARENTHOOD, KAMALA HARRIS, CA AG FOR VIOLATING CIVIL RIGHTS
Lawsuit Claims “Content-Based” Selective Enforcement of CA Video Recording Law To Silence First Amendment Speech and Cover Up for Abortion Industry

Contact: David Daleiden, media@centerformedicalprogress.org, 949.734.0859

IRVINE, May 13–The Center for Medical Progress and its founder David Daleiden, responsible for the undercover video series exposing top Planned Parenthood leadership negotiating the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal body parts, are suing Planned Parenthood, Kamala Harris, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in Los Angeles federal court for conspiracy to violate First and Fourteenth Amendment civil rights.

The lawsuit states:

“This complaint seeks justice for a brazen, unprecedented, and ongoing conspiracy to selectively use California’s video recording laws as a political weapon to silence disfavored speech. David Daleiden became the first journalist ever to be criminally prosecuted under California’s recording law, not because of the method of video recording he utilized in his investigation—which is common in investigative journalism in this state—but because his investigation revealed and he published “shock[ing]” content that California’s Attorney General and the private party co-conspirators wanted to cover up.”

California’s recording law bans secret videotaping of “confidential” conversations where third parties cannot be expected to overhear the conversation. The lawsuit documents many recent examples of undercover video recording by California news outlets, even recording conversations that could not be overheard by others, that the Attorney General never prosecuted.

The California Attorney General admitted in a filing that Daleiden alone among other undercover recorders was being charged for his videos because “those recordings were edited to enhance their shock value” and thus Daleiden was “culpable to a greater extent” than other journalists.

And then during questioning about the elements of the video recording law used for prosecution at the preliminary hearing last year, the California Attorney General declared in open court, “There is no definition of ‘confidential’ in the statute” on video recording. The California recording law in fact defines “confidential communication” at 632(c).

“The California Attorney General first admitted that they are enforcing the video recording law solely based on how they feel about the message being published, and then further admitted they are not even trying to follow the text of the law as written,” Daleiden notes. “CMP’s undercover reporting has been corroborated by the successful prosecution of fetal body parts sales we reported in southern California, multiple Congressional investigations, and forensic video analysis. It is every reporter’s First Amendment right to underscore the gravity of their findings, especially when the politically powerful disagree with them.”

Harmeet K. Dhillon, lead counsel on the complaint, states: “Our federal civil rights statutes were enacted in the wake of the darkest periods in our nation’s history. They are well-suited for the current civil rights crisis we face, a time when powerful politicians allow their special interest patrons to custom-order prosecutions that violate fundamental constitutional rights, and do so even with the knowledge that their actions are ultra vires.”

Beginning under the leadership of now-U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, the California Attorney General’s office targeted Daleiden’s speech under the video recording law at the urging of Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation, and StemExpress, a fetal tissue procurement company with deep ties to the professional abortion industry. While running for U.S. Senate, Harris had a secret in-person meeting with Planned Parenthood executives in Los Angeles, including witnesses in her investigation, to discuss issues in the investigation as part of Planned Parenthood’s political agenda in California. Two weeks later, Daleiden’s home was raided by the California Department of Justice.

California DOJ reports reveal that they were instructed by Planned Parenthood’s attorney Beth Parker, a defendant in the lawsuit, to seize “the computers used to produce the videos.” Last year, Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation attempted to intervene in the Attorney General’s prosecution of Daleiden to dictate how he would be allowed to present his defense. The California recording law includes an absolute protection for recordings made for the purpose of gathering evidence of violent crimes, and Planned Parenthood and NAF wanted to block off any evidence or testimony that would reveal criminality in their fetal tissue programs.

The publication of CMP’s undercover videos led to two comprehensive Congressional investigations, one in the Senate Judiciary Committee and one in the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel. The two investigations issued dozens of criminal referrals for Planned Parenthood and its business partners for transferring aborted fetal organs and tissues for valuable consideration against the law. In December 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had opened a federal investigation of Planned Parenthood, StemExpress, and others based on the referrals from Congress. Two of Planned Parenthood’s business partners in Orange County, CA then admitted guilt for selling aborted fetal organs and tissues from Planned Parenthood against the law in a $7.8 million settlement, and the Orange County District Attorney credited CMP’s undercover reporting with prompting the successful case.

The case is 8:20-cv-00891, The Center for Medical Progress and David Daleiden v. Xavier Becerra, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, National Abortion Federation, StemExpress, Kamala Harris, Jill Habig, Beth Parker, et al. in the Central District of California.

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Read the complaint here.

To watch the undercover videos, visit: centerformedicalprogress.org/cmp/investigative-footage

To learn more about CMP, visit: CMP.org