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After Cecile Richards’ sudden and unexplained departure in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice’s active investigation of Planned Parenthood for selling aborted baby body parts, the nation’s biggest abortion business has announced its new president will be pro-abortion advocate Dr. Leana Wen. Dr. Wen previously led initiatives calling for “radical transparency” from doctors about their views on controversial issues like abortion. In this spirit, Planned Parenthood and its new president should immediately disclose how many abortions Dr. Wen has performed, whether she will perform abortions as Planned Parenthood president and up to what gestational age, and if she supports contracts for baby body parts like the ones the biggest Planned Parenthood affiliates entered into under Richards’ leadership. CMP also asks Dr. Wen directly: does “radical transparency” for doctors include undercover video?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CENTER FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS ISSUES SPECIAL REPORT ON GOVERNMENT ABORTED BABY BODY PARTS CONTRACTOR
Advanced Bioscience Resources, Inc. Purchased Body Parts from Planned Parenthood and Sold to Government-Funded Researchers

Contact: Matille Thebolt, mthebolt@crcpublicrelations.com, 703.683.5004

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 10–The Center for Medical Progress issued a whitepaper special report today on the fetal body parts procurement company Advanced Bioscience Resources (ABR), in response to recent reports that the Health & Human Services Department is again contracting with the organization that paid Planned Parenthood for aborted fetal specimens, which is now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 2015, CMP released a series of undercover videos of senior-level Planned Parenthood leadership discussing the harvesting and sale of aborted fetal organs and tissues. The video series also included interviews with representatives of ABR, one of the largest and oldest companies dedicated solely to harvesting and reselling body parts from abortions. ABR stations technicians inside Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics across the country, where the ABR technicians identify and dissect fetal body parts from abortions and then package and ship them directly to ABR’s customers, oftentimes government-sponsored research laboratories.

In CMP’s previously-released footage of ABR, the company’s Procurement Manager admits to having observed fully intact fetuses being delivered inside the abortion clinics during ABR harvesting cases: “I literally have had women come in and they’ll go in the OR, and they’re back out in 3 minutes, and I’m going, ‘What’s got’ on?’ ‘Oh yeah, the fetus was already in the vaginal canal, whenever we put her in the stirrups, it just fell out.'”

ABR, based in the San Francisco bay area, has contracted for decades with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, based in southern California, to harvest aborted fetal specimens at Planned Parenthood in San Diego and Riverside for $60 per specimen and then resell them to taxpayer-funded researchers for up to $6,000 per specimen. After the release of the videos, two detailed Congressional investigations at the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Select Investigative Panel issued criminal referrals for ABR and Planned Parenthood to the FBI, USDOJ, and Riverside County District Attorney. In December 2017, the DOJ announced it had an active investigation based on the criminal referrals.

Also in December last year, a District Attorney in southern California credited CMP’s investigative reporting with prompting the successful civil prosecution of two companies like ABR that illegally sold fetal organs and tissue from the local Planned Parenthood. Those companies, DV Biologics and DaVinci Biosciences, admitted guilt for selling fetal body parts for profit in a $7.8 million settlement.

CMP’s new report presents primary-source evidence that ABR sold aborted fetal specimens at prices far higher than its legally reimbursable costs, and that it admitted in emails obtained through a Public Records request to massively overbilling researchers for fetal organs at prices far above ABR’s actual costs. The report also highlights previous experimental cell-based therapy products, made with fetal specimens provided by ABR, that ultimately proved ineffective and dangerous.

Yet according to recent reports, this summer the FDA renewed a purchase order with ABR for nearly $16,000 in “fresh” aborted fetal organs and tissues to implant into laboratory mice. Last year, the NIH spent nearly $100 million on projects using aborted fetal body parts, $20 million of which went to intramural, government-run projects engaging in fetal experimentation.

CMP Project David Daleiden notes, “Advanced Bioscience Resources is under federal investigation right now for colluding with Planned Parenthood to sell aborted baby body parts for profit. It is unconscionable that the United States government is still paying top-dollar in taxpayer money for the freshest, most high-quality dismembered baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains. By custom-ordering late-term aborted baby body parts for sale from Planned Parenthood partners like ABR, the FDA is directly complicit in these abortions and implies that these kids are worth more to the U.S. Government dead than alive. HHS must provide full transparency and immediately terminate any and all such contracts, and the U.S. Department of Justice needs to do their job and hold ABR, Planned Parenthood, and those like them accountable to the law.”

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Documents:

Read the new report here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/human-capital/special-report-advanced-bioscience-resources/

Learn more about CMP at centerformedicalprogress.org

On August 15, The Center for Medical Progress and David Daleiden filed three motions in San Francisco federal court to dismiss Planned Parenthood-proxy the National Abortion Federation’s lawsuit and dissolve the preliminary injunction gag order that censors CMP’s remaining undercover video of Planned Parenthood leaders negotiating the sale of aborted baby parts.

CMP Statement:
“Three years ago, Planned Parenthood’s abortion doctors with the National Abortion Federation stormed into federal court demanding a gag order over the most damning undercover footage. Now they have largely retreated, dropping all of their federal claims and allegations of unlawful video recording, leaving only a simple contract dispute between fellow Californians. Since the gag order was issued, two Congressional investigations, a successful case against Planned Parenthood’s business partners in southern California, and the ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigation prove that CMP’s videos are accurate and Judge Orrick’s reasons for placing the gag order were false. This case should be thrown out of federal court, and the censored undercover videos must be released.”

 

Key Points:

• NAF, largely made up of Planned Parenthood abortion leaders, stormed into federal court 3 years ago falsely accusing CMP and David Daleiden of trespass, fraud, illegal videotaping, and even RICO. This summer, NAF dropped the majority of their claims–now all they have left is a contract dispute.
• NAF is suing on behalf of its members, who include many of the largest Planned Parenthood affiliates in California who are suing on some of the same claims in PP’s related federal lawsuit. Because NAF has now dropped all of its federal claims, this lawsuit is now just a contract dispute among several Californians and there is no longer any jurisdiction for it in federal court. Judge Orrick cannot make any more rulings in this case and must throw it out.
• NAF and its members cannot allege any plausible violation in their contract disputes–their argument boils down to asserting they were harmed because CMP’s actors did not actually buy aborted baby parts from them instead of just talking about it.
• In February 2016, Judge Orrick granted NAF’s request for a Preliminary Injunction blocking the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood directors filmed at its annual meetings by CMP, based on NAF’s representation that CMP’s undercover work had not found any wrongdoing, and allegations that the videos placed NAF members under threat. In the past two years, Judge Orrick’s findings supporting his injunction have been proven false.
• Since the injunction was issued, two Congressional investigations prompted by CMP’s videos confirmed serious wrongdoing and “systematic violations” in Planned Parenthood and NAF’s fetal body parts supply, yielding over a dozen criminal and regulatory referrals, now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. A California District Attorney specifically credited CMP’s undercover work with prompting his successful prosecution of Planned Parenthood business partners the DaVinci companies for selling fetal tissue for profit, which the companies admitted in a $7.8 million settlement.
• Planned Parenthood has admitted since the injunction was issued that CMP’s videos are not responsible for any specific violent threat to abortion providers, and NAF’s own statistics published since the injunction shows no increase in actual threats to NAF members attributable to the videos. CMP has never released a video calling for harm to anyone and has instead always directed the public to seek recourse through elected representatives and First Amendment speech.
• Since the injunction, the California Attorney General has brought a legally unsupported prosecution against David Daleiden based on the California video recording law, at the behest of Planned Parenthood and many NAF members. The undercover videos subject to Judge Orrick’s injunction are now key evidence in the criminal case, and any restriction on them from the federal court would unconstitutionally interfere with the California justice system and David Daleiden’s 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th amendment rights to defend himself from the AG’s and Planned Parenthood’s false charges.

Advanced Bioscience Resources is under federal investigation right now for colluding with Planned Parenthood to sell aborted baby body parts for profit. It is unconscionable that the United States government is still paying top-dollar in taxpayer money for the freshest, most high-quality dismembered baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains. By custom-ordering late-term aborted baby body parts for sale from Planned Parenthood partners like ABR, the FDA is directly complicit in these abortions and implies that these kids are worth more to the U.S. Government dead than alive. HHS must provide full transparency and immediately terminate any and all such contracts, and the U.S. Department of Justice needs to do their job and hold ABR, Planned Parenthood, and those like them accountable to the law.

Three years ago, citizen journalists at The Center for Medical Progress caught Planned Parenthood’s senior leadership in a series of undercover videos casually negotiating the sale of aborted baby body parts. Today, the Trump Administration begins to defund Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer-funded abortion business so that Americans will no longer forced to prop up this criminal abortion empire. Now, the Department of Justice must do their job and hold Planned Parenthood accountable under the law for their lawless profiteering off the broken bodies of aborted children.

Cecile Richards was the most devoted practitioner of Planned Parenthood’s “out of sight, out of mind” mantra to cover up their barbaric abortion business from the public. After CMP’s revealing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors and the damning findings of multiple Congressional probes, Richards’ departure shows that the old strategy is no longer working as Planned Parenthood faces federal criminal investigation for selling aborted baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains. Planned Parenthood’s new leadership should commit to full transparency with the Department of Justice and with the public, and to ending this taxpayer-funded criminal abortion enterprise once and for all.

The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) filed a petition for a writ of mandamus today at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, seeking the disqualification of San Francisco federal Judge William Orrick III from the lawsuits against CMP by Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation, on account of Judge Orrick’s close ties to Planned Parenthood.

Judge Orrick is responsible for the prior-restraint gag order, currently being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, that censors CMP’s remaining undercover footage of Planned Parenthood at the National Abortion Federation’s annual meetings. CMP’s undercover citizen journalism reporting led to the recent news that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Planned Parenthood, and an admission of guilt in a $7.8 million settlement by two of Planned Parenthood’s business partners for selling fetal body parts against the law.

The facts about Judge Orrick’s extrajudicial support of Planned Parenthood include:

1) While in a leadership role at a San Francisco family resource center, Judge Orrick helped open, run, and fund a Planned Parenthood clinic in partnership with the family resource center. That clinic is part of Planned Parenthood Northern California, which has NAF membership and is now suing CMP in Judge Orrick’s courtroom.

2) Judge Orrick and his wife together donated significant financial resources to the partnership between the family resource center and Planned Parenthood, which the Planned Parenthood affiliate CEO said helped maintain and expand their operations.

3) Mrs. Orrick uses her husband’s image on Facebook to support Planned Parenthood in posts attacking CMP’s videos as “domestic terrorism” and weigh in on issues disputed in the lawsuits.

4) Judge Orrick’s ongoing public relationship and duties toward the family resource center in San Francisco housing Planned Parenthood Northern California’s clinic, and the center’s continuing partnership with Planned Parenthood.

Two of Planned Parenthood’s business partners, DaVinci Biosciences and DV Biologics, have admitted guilt in a $7.8 million settlement with the Orange County District Attorney for selling aborted baby body parts from Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties for profit in violation of federal and California law. The OCDA’s press release credits citizen journalism reporting from The Center for Medical Progress for prompting the investigation of baby body parts trafficking in Orange County.

“The DaVinci companies’ admission of guilt for selling baby parts from Planned Parenthood is a ringing vindication of CMP’s citizen journalism methods and accuracy,” says CMP Project Lead David Daleiden. “In light of the news that Planned Parenthood is now under federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for the sale of fetal body parts, the next step is for Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties to be held accountable under the law for their 7-year-long aiding, abetting, and profiting in DaVinci’s criminal scheme to sell baby parts for profit.”

See CMP’s citizen journalism work on Planned Parenthood Orange & San Bernardino Counties and DaVinci Biologics here: https://www.centerformedicalprogress.org/2016/03/planned-parenthood-orange-county-changes-abortions-to-harvest-intact-fetuses-for-local-companys-fetal-products-sales/

Over two years ago, citizen journalists at The Center for Medical Progress first caught Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors in a series of undercover videos callously and flippantly negotiating the sale of tiny baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains. Since then, two Congressional investigations found even deeper wrongdoing and confirmed that Planned Parenthood Federation of America, several of their biggest affiliates, and multiple business partners broke the law in a profit-driven scheme to commodify dismembered baby body parts. It is time for public officials to finally hold Planned Parenthood and their criminal abortion enterprise accountable under the law.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STEMEXPRESS SHIPPED FETAL PARTS FROM PLANNED PARENTHOOD AGAINST FEDEX RULES, SAYS WHISTLEBLOWER
Former StemExpress Procurement Technician Describes How Company Broke FedEx Rules to Sell Aborted Baby Body Parts from Planned Parenthood

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

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 28—In a new video, a whistleblower from the fetal tissue wholesaler StemExpress tells how the company shipped body parts from Planned Parenthood abortions in knowing violation of FedEx policies.

Holly O’Donnell worked for StemExpress as a procurement technician from late 2012 to early 2013, stationed inside some of the biggest Planned Parenthood clinics in northern California. StemExpress workers used private patient medical files leaked to them by Planned Parenthood management to target pregnant women who could meet their body parts order quotas for the day. The StemExpress workers, who received a bonus based on the number and type of body parts they harvested, dissected the fetuses, packaged the organs, and shipped them off via FedEx to StemExpress research customers. StemExpress in turn paid Planned Parenthood based on the number of fetal specimens “determined in the clinic to be usable.”

In the sixth video of a new series from The Center for Medical Progress highlighting her eyewitness testimony, O’Donnell explains how one day she and her supervisor had trouble shipping body parts at FedEx in San Jose, CA:

“The guy behind the counter kinda is looking at her funny, and she goes, ‘I want to ship this here,’” recounts O’Donnell. “And he looks at her and says, ‘What’s in the package?’ and she goes, ‘Um, does it matter?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, ‘cause I know what’s in that package. I’m not shipping it.’”

The FedEx Service Guide Terms and Conditions state: “You are prohibited from tendering the following items for shipment, and you agree not to do so:” listing, “Human corpses, human body parts, human embryos, or cremated or disinterred human remains” under “Prohibited Items.”

When O’Donnell asked her supervisor why FedEx was refusing to ship the aborted fetal parts, she says her supervisor replied, “Oh, because he know’s what’s in here, you’re technically not supposed to ship body parts,” and then told O’Donnell: “I’ve got to go all the way across town to go to a different FedEx and drop this off,” apparently as a way to trick a different FedEx branch into shipping the body parts against their services agreement with StemExpress.

After over a year of nationwide investigation last December, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Select Investigative Panel referred StemExpress and its business partners Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Planned Parenthood Northern California, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America to the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice for further investigation and criminal prosecution.

Earlier this month, The Hill reported that the FBI is seeking thousands of pages of unredacted documents from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation and criminal referrals of Planned Parenthood, StemExpress, and related entities. Attorney General Jeff Sessions then confirmed in Congressional testimony that the findings in the referrals could form the basis of criminal charges against Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, once verified by the Department of Justice.

CMP project lead David Daleiden notes, “Holly O’Donnell’s eyewitness account of the day-to-day harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts the work of the Congressional investigations, which found “systematic violations” between StemExpress and Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood and StemExpress ran a profit-driven business to sell aborted baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains, and it is time for these corrupt organizations to be held accountable under the law.”

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Documents:

Watch the new video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28mDUceJCss

Learn more about CMP at centerformedicalprogress.org