In an undercover video released today, Planned Parenthood executives explain how they hope to profit from the sale of baby parts. They also admit how nervous they are about the prospect of getting caught, and brag about the freshness of their product.

Carolyn Westhoff, senior medical advisor for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, explains: “We’ve just been working with people who want particular tissues. They want cardiac or they want eyes or they want neural. People want spinal cords. So I mean, that sort of thing. Certainly everything we provide – oh, gonads. Ohmigod, gonads. Everything we provide is fresh” (emphasis added).

 
“We have a department that is focused on our abortion providers. And the head of that department is here. And I’m sure they have, in essence, at their fingertips, information about volume and second tri versus first tri and so on. And I think they would be the right people to explore whether affiliates are different. Obviously, we would have the potential for a huge H – a P.R. issue, by doing this.”

“I’ll make sure you talk to our national office people.”

In what appears to be a first meeting between the buyer and Deb VanDerhei, national director of the Consortium of Abortion Providers, the latter quickly gets to the point: the money. “Do you, um, can I ask you about remuneration? So what’s your policy, and what have you been…?”

VanDerhei treads carefully, explaining to the buyer that she had been talking to the executive director of the National Abortion Federation. Together, they were “trying to figure this out as an industry, about how we’re going to handle remuneration…. We are absent a policy and that’s relatively intentional.… Think New York Times headline.”

VanDerhei warns, “If you’re doing it [taking money for tissue], there’s opportunities for people to find out about it.” Nevertheless, she tells the buyer: “Go for it, we think it’s a great idea. Just do it right.”

Part of doing the sale of fresh baby parts “right” is apparently avoiding a paper trail. VanDerhei says that organ sales are something that she is “not comfortable talking about on email, and so we want to have the conversation in person.”

In a conversation with Vanessa Russo, compliance program administrator at Planned Parenthood Keystone, Russo voices concern about possible media attention and congressional investigations. Then she frankly admits that some Planned Parenthood affiliates aren’t concerned with obeying federal law, and that many stand to profit from “tissue donation.” The video transcript is revealing:

Russo: “My stance on that is like, we feel like we can’t consent to be bullied by ridiculous laws and this media that does not understand the big picture. And I don’t really think we should participate in that level of discussion… and that we should not curtail our business for ridiculousness.”

“A company like this [the buyer’s], that wants to give our organization money for the tissue, I think that that’s a valid exchange. And that that’s okay.”

VanDerhei: “Well, I think a congressional hearing from, you know, scared the bejeezus out of people fifteen years ago – there was a congressional hearing, and it turned out to be fraud, but –

Buyer: “Really? What was the fraud?”

VanDerhei: “There was a person, a person that said Planned Parenthood had changed the way it does its procedures so that they can collect tissue so that they can sell tissue. It turned out that was false, but it sparked a congressional hearing and some federal legislation, which is where some of that came from. So we just want to not have to repeat that again. And there are a lot of Planned Parenthoods that participate in donation programs that are reimbursed for it.”

“I know Northern California, Mar Monte, L.A., they all provide donation for remuneration.”  (all emphases above added)

Planned Parenthood affiliates are clearly profiting from the sale of aborted babies’ body parts. But they are careful to keep all conversations about in person and undocumented. As Vanessa Cullins, vice president for external medical affairs at PPFA, explains to the buyer in a stern voice, “This is important. This could destroy your company and us if we don’t time those conversations correctly.” (emphasis added)

The Methodology of Planned Parenthood’s Cover-Up

So how does Planned Parenthood handle these conversations? Through secrecy and careful planning. According to VanDerhei, “If they do it, that’s fine, we’re not going to say no, but we want them to think about, really, the New York Times headline. How could this go bad?”

On the other hand, VanDerhei explains, “We have independent colleagues who generate a fair amount of income doing this. If they have smaller margins or don’t have the ability to fundraise because they’re not a nonprofit, that’s really helpful.”

The sale of baby body parts is keeping abortion providers around the country in the black, even as they scramble to keep lawmakers, the media and the general public in the dark. Why let “ridiculous laws” prevent the “valid exchange” of money for little pieces of aborted American babies?