Planned Parenthood Is Selling Baby Parts Without Mothers' Consent, Ex-Abortion Clinic Worker Claims in Sixth Shocking Video
The Center for Medical Progress has released its sixth video shining a light on Planned Parenthood's aborted baby parts compensation practices. The video claims that Planned Parenthood and its partner, StemExpress, are pressuring women to have abortions and are harvesting babies' body parts without the consent of their mothers.
The video, which was released by CMP Wednesday morning, is the continuation of an interview from the third web video released by CMP in July featuring Holly O'Donnell, an ex-procurement technician for StemExpress.
O'Donnell, who previously said she unknowingly took the job as a fetal tissue procurement officer when she was hired as a phlebotomist, detailed the unethical procurement processes and techniques used by StemExpress agents, as the company's various procurement officers are responsible for collecting specific fetal organs and tissues that meet certain criteria needed for research clients.
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"The women I worked for were cold. They were cold. They don't care, they just wanted their money and they didn't care that the girl was throwing up in the trashcan, crying," O'Donnell said. "There are times when patients would ask me 'Should I do this?' My personal view, I am very pro-life, and I tell them to 'Run! Go! You will figure something out but don't do this. If you don't want to do this, go home.' I would get in trouble for that."
O'Donnell explained that each day, she and other procurement officers were responsible for going to their assigned Planned Parenthood clinics, tracking the appointments that those clinics had that day and obtaining the types of tissue and organs clients were looking for.
Although O'Donnell knew the demand was high for tissue coming from more developed and older babies, she did not feel it was ethical to pressure distraught mothers, who were trying to decide whether to continue their pregnancies and keep their babies, into getting an abortion just so she and the company could make a few bucks.
On a few occasions, O'Donnell said she was reprimanded for not persuading mothers to get an abortion. After advising one mother not to go through with her abortion, O'Donnell's boss told her she had missed an "opportunity" to make money for the company by not encouraging the woman to kill her baby.
"My job is to go there and get blood and tissue parts. It wasn't presented as an option," O'Donnell said. "From my boss, the words of Sarah, she told me it is not an option, it's a demand. 'That is what your job is.'"
"I am not going to push them over the edge when they are on the edge," O'Donnell added.
O'Donnell further claimed that her co-workers would often not get the consent of the mothers to sell their aborted babies' parts to researchers.
She recounted one time at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Fresno, California, when she asked the mother of a highly gestated baby whether she was willing to allow StemExpress to harvest the tissue. The woman objected and O'Donnell said she was fine with her decision. But on the next day, O'Donnell said her co-worker simply took the blood samples and aborted baby's parts without asking for the mother's permission.
"The co-workers I had, they would not consent the donors. If there was a higher gestation and the technicians needed it, there were times when they would just take what they wanted and these mothers don't know and there is no way they would know," O'Donnell explained. "That's terrifying. Imagine if you were an abortion patient and someone was going in and stealing your baby's parts. Half of these women are already on the edge as it is."
O'Donnell also detailed how aggressive one Planned Parenthood doctor at the clinic in Fresno was when it came to pressuring women into getting abortions. She explained that abortionist Ron Berman worked "viciously fast" when it comes to abortions.
"It's like if we didn't watch him, we would lose our specimens. It was that fast. If there wasn't a girl in the room, he would get mad. He would pace the hallways if there wasn't something to do. It's almost like he wanted to do it and that made me really concerned," O'Donnell explained. "And how fast he was going with these women, I felt bad. There was a few times where if he was working and I had a girl who did not want to get it but she felt she had to, I wanted to tell her do not go into this clinic."
"When I imagine, because I have seen abortions, I imagine him literally going into the room, lifting the covers, going in, grabbing and walking out," O'Donnell continued. "Like, that is how fast it is. It's ridiculous."
Despite the onslaught of videos from CMP, Planned Parenthood has maintained that the nation's largest abortion provider has not violated any laws through its tissue compensation practices. By law, companies are allowed to be compensated for babies' tissue but are not allowed to profit off the sale. But in CMP's fourth video, a Planned Parenthood doctor is seen purportedly discussing how Planned Parenthood avoids legal consequences for unlawful compensation practices.
Planned Parenthood has also maintained that the videos are doctored and are nothing more than a smear campaign by pro-life activists, despite the fact that CMP has subsequently released hours of footage revealing the abortion provider's actions.
As conservatives have called for the federal government to prohibit federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood, at least three states have taken steps to defund Planned Parenthood affiliates within their states. Meanwhile, 12 states have launched investigations into Planned Parenthood's organ harvesting practices.
