“It matters whether or not abortion clinics line their pockets through the dismemberment and distribution of children – all while receiving tax dollars. It matters because we are talking about the tiny limbs of babies with dignity – the broken yet still precious children of mothers and fathers,” stated Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska during the Congressional hearing of April 20, 2016, on new documents showing Planned Parenthood illegally profits from the sale of aborted baby parts.
The Senator continued: “Here, on this basic reality…Babies are not the sum of their body parts. Babies are not meant to be bought. Babies are not meant to be sold. Babies are just that – babies. They’re meant to be welcomed and rejoiced over, held, and nurtured.”
The Videos
As previously reported in detail in Northern Kentucky Right to Life’s newsletters, beginning last July, the Center for Medical Progress, under the direction of David Daleiden, released a number of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the harvesting and sale of unborn babies’ body parts, as well as apparently discussing how they would change the abortion procedure to obtain intact babies, which brought a better price.
Not only do they expose the grizzly details of what it means to destroy an unborn child by abortion, but the videos also highlight Planned Parenthood’s illegal profit from the sale of human organs.
The videos have resulted in a series of state and federal investigations into Planned Parenthood’s activities, as well as some states’ defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Naturally, the abortion industry turns to its political operatives, who then file criminal charges against those who publicize the truth of what Planned Parenthood really does.
In Houston, Texas, David Daleiden, and his associate, Sandra Merritt, have been indicted, while Planned Parenthood has not been charged with any criminal activity.
“It’s horrifying that the Houston grand jury failed to indict the organization which was willing to sell baby body parts, yet somehow manages to indict the journalist who caught them in the act,” stated Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America.
“The fact that an employee of the district attorney is on the board of Planned Parenthood confirms an incestuous relationship between corrupt officials in the Harris County DA’s office and the nation’s largest abortion provider, whose livelihood is on the line should they be criminally charged with selling the body parts of aborted babies,” she said, reports The Wanderer.
Prosecutor Minimizes Her Own Violation of the Law
In her haste to minimize the adverse publicity to Planned Parenthood caused by the release of these videos, the District Attorney of Harris County, Devon Anderson, now admits that she also violated the law, labeling her actions as “minor and harmless.”
Under Texas law, an indictment may not be made public until the defendant is placed in custody or under bond. Ignoring the law, Anderson held a press conference the day of the indictment and then posted an online video, long before Daleiden and Merritt were taken into custody.
Naturally, the prosecutor downplayed her own disregard for the law. “That oversight was a mere technical, inconsequential violation of” the law…a tiny “procedural irregularity” that was “minor and harmless,” her brief to the court states.
“But it’s interesting to see Anderson argue that people should overlook the violation of some laws, because other underlying criminal actions it stops are more serious. That’s exactly what David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were arguing. Their use of a fake ID – and the laughable allegation that they really wanted to purchase human organs – pales in comparison to the macabre and likely felonious enterprise they revealed.
“The fact that a ‘pro-life’ district attorney defends her own criminal actions in order to prosecute the pro-life movement, at the direction of Planned Parenthood, should expose this politically motivated persecution for the kangaroo court that it is,” states lifesitenews.com.
One of Two Charges Dismissed
Texas Judge Diane Bull dismissed one of the two counts against Daleiden, throwing out the charge that he was trafficking in human organs.
However, Daleiden still faces charges of tampering with a government document, for using a false driver’s license, listing his name as “Robert Starkis,” which he used in his investigation.
Persecution Opens on a Second Front in California
On April 5, the California Attorney General’s office raided David Daleiden’s home, confiscating all of his undercover video footage of Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of aborted babies’ organs and tissues.
The “office of Kamala Harris, who was elected with tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood, seized all video footage showing Planned Parenthood’s criminal trade in aborted baby parts, in addition to my personal information,” Daleiden said in an official statement. “Ironically, while seizing my First Amendment work product, they ignored documents showing the illicit scheme between StemExpress and Planned Parenthood.”
Harris, who was first elected in 2016, is now seeking the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Barbara Boxer. She has received thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood and hosts a petition on her campaign website asking voters to join her in “defending Planned Parenthood,” reports The Wanderer.
“To storm into a private citizen’s home with a search warrant is outrageously out of proportion for the type of crime alleged. It’s a discredit to law enforcement, an oppressive abuse of government power,” said Matt Heffron, a former federal prosecutor in Phoenix, and now a legal adviser to Daleiden.
“This is no surprise,” Daleiden said. “Planned Parenthood’s bought-and-paid-for AG has steadfastly refused to enforce the law against the baby body parts traffickers in our state – or even investigate them – while at the same time doing their bidding to harass and intimidate citizen journalists.”
Pro-Life Lawyers Stand Up
David Daleiden’s lawyer, Peter Breen, special counsel for Thomas More Society, exposes the tyranny: “How can anyone claim that David Daleiden tried to buy baby body parts for profit without agreeing that Planned Parenthood was willing to sell baby body parts for profit? David’s purpose was to bring to light an illegal and disgusting practice of the abortion industry, and he’s done so. David caught Planned Parenthood in Houston on tape agreeing to change abortion procedures, presumably without telling their patients, in order to get better organs from aborted babies.”
In Planned Parenthood’s suit against Sandra Merritt, who posed as “Susan Tennenbaum, CEO of Biomax” to capture undercover footage of Planned Parenthood representatives discussing how they alter abortion procedures to obtain the specific aborted babies’ organs, as well as haggling over the price, attorneys with Liberty Counsel have not only moved to dismiss the case, but have requested that Planned Parenthood pay the defendant’s costs.
“Plaintiffs here are not seeking to vindicate their patients’ rights to obtain an abortion,” state the attorneys for Merritt, “but to vindicate a purported right of privacy in their own corporate business transactions.”
“It is the discussions of altering abortion procedures and harvesting and selling baby body parts revealed in the videos, not Ms. Merritt’s identification of herself as Susan Tennenbaum of Biomax, that caused any purported business injuries alleged by” Planned Parenthood, including numerous state and federal investigations that the organization’s national officers teach affiliates how to skirt the law,” argue her attorneys.
“Sandra is not intimidated by Planned Parenthood’s bullies,” said Harry Mihet, chief litigation counsel for Liberty Counsel. “Their efforts to hide the truth and chill free speech will fail.”
Congressional Hearings
The Select Panel on Infant Lives, of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, conducted hearings on April 20, 2016, to hear and review evidence as to Planned Parenthood’s selling of human baby parts.
A 1993 federal statute prohibits the sale of fetal tissue. “However, witnesses called during this month’s hearing say abortion providers have ignored that law for decades, encouraging and profiting from a market in human body parts,” relates Break Point.
Planned Parenthood and purchasers of fetal tissue have insisted for months that the money discussed in the undercover videos was “reimbursement for reasonable costs.” But testimony before the panel reveals that there’s no evidence clinics incurred any cost while harvesting fetal tissue. Third-party procurement technicians covered the costs, right down to shipping and handling. “When income exceeds costs,” writes Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist, “that’s profit.”
Among the documents presented at the hearing were invoices for the sale and transfer of fetal organs. Hemingway writes that one customer paid over $3,000 for a fetal brain. Another opted for a bulk discount, buying 38 tiny brains for $22,000. And one procurement website entered as evidence during the hearing shows a drop-down menu order form where researchers can purchase “heart, lungs, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, esophagus, tongue, [and] scalp,” relates LifeSiteNews.
“You don’t need to be a lawyer to see what’s going on here,” remarked Rep. Blackburn. “This does not sound to me like tissue donation for research. This sounds like someone who wants to make money – a lot of money – selling baby body parts.”
StemExpress
A corporate partner that has paid Planned Parenthood for these aborted babies’ body parts and tissues is StemExpress. A company which only started in 2010 now generates over $4.5 million in revenue, a 1,316% increase in three years.
Last fall, the Center for Medical Progress released one video showing StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer informing its undercover investigators that her company shipped “a lot” of “intact” aborted babies’ bodies to researchers nationwide.
The House Select Panel on Infant Lives has issued subpoenas in its investigation of StemExpress, as to whether it violated federal law by purchasing aborted babies’ organs and tissues.
“In light of the advice we received from witnesses at our hearing last month, these subpoenas are necessary in order for the Select Investigative Panel to complete a full review of StemExpress’ accounting records,” Rep. Blackburn, who chairs the panel, said. “Documents uncovered by our investigation so far point to the very troubling possibility that StemExpress may have violated federal law by profiting from the sale of baby body parts.”
More Planned Parenthood Lies
One of the witnesses before the Congressional committee presented consent forms that Planned Parenthood uses to request consent of mothers to allow Planned Parenthood to have and use aborted babies’ body parts, organs, and tissues. The form states: “Research from the blood from pregnant women and the tissue that has been aborted has been used to treat and find a cure for such diseases as Diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and AIDS.”
The fact that there is no cure for any of these above-mentioned diseases was brought out by Republican members of this Select Panel.
“I’ll say, I lost my mother last year with Alzheimer’s,” said Cong. Vicky Hartzel (R-MO), a pro-life stalwart on the committee. “I am not aware that there is a cure out there. This is news to me.”
Defunding Planned Parenthood
In Congressional testimony, Planned Parenthood testified that it receives 41% of its total funding from taxpayers, having received over half a billion dollars from U.S. taxpayers during the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
When Texas defunded Planned Parenthood, President Obama sidestepped Texas law and donated $13 million in Title X funding directly to a coalition of abortion providers that included Planned Parenthood. In May, Mississippi joined other states, including Tennessee, North Carolina, and New Hampshire, in defunding Planned Parenthood.
Naturally, President Obama, the most pro-abortion president ever, has either sued states for defunding or cutting back funds to Planned Parenthood, and/or has threatened to withhold Medicare payments.
“Law enforcement in Planned Parenthood-friendly jurisdictions should stop wasting taxpayer resources to assist Planned Parenthood in harassing citizen journalists, and should stop ignoring the evidence of real fraud, baby body parts trafficking, and criminal abortion practices right in their own backyard,” states Daleiden.
