By DEXTER DUGGAN
PHOENIX — After revelations of two national Planned Parenthood executives casually chatting about altering abortion procedures so as to preserve unborn babies’ organs for a mutually negotiated dollar amount paid by buyers, nine states’ officials began investigating Planned Parenthood’s tactics.
Abortion providers clearly looking to secure a better price and sell organs would break the law, as they also would if changing the abortion tactics to improve organ recovery. Nevertheless, some state officials were accused by critics only of pandering to conservatives by starting investigations.
The PP executives’ conversations were in the first of two sting videos released in July by the California-based, pro-life Center for Medical Progress, with even more damaging videos on the way, including the third one which was released July 28 (centerformedicalprogress.org).
Dr. Deborah Nucatola, in the first video, ate salad and drank wine in a restaurant while she casually talked about ways to “crush” babies in a way to preserve their organs.
In the second video, Dr. Mary Gatter, also in a restaurant, talked about negotiating prices and said she’d check with an abortionist about using a “less crunchy” method so the executed babies’ desired organs would be in better condition.
Pro-abortionists responding to the embarrassing videos were careful not to highlight the dismayingly descriptive, candid language about “crush” and “crunchy.”
The videos were viewed millions of times, eliciting widespread shock and condemnation, although PP defenders improbably likened harvesting organs from healthy babies killed in permissive abortion to any other bloody surgery.
LifeNews reported July 28 that nine states have already launched an investigation: Massachusetts, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana. More may follow.
In another development, the fact that major corporations considered to be in the mainstream were fleeing from being identified as donors to Planned Parenthood showed how deeply the video revelations against the abortion giant were hurting its bank account.
Although the videos generated immediate, widespread reaction, pro-life activist John Naughton’s Project Mustard Seed also needs to be acknowledged for his long efforts to encourage people to write to corporations and request they stop donating to PP.
Meanwhile, after moderate-conservative Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered an investigation in the Grand Canyon State on July 20, two liberal columnists at the state’s largest daily paper, the Phoenix-based Arizona Republic, said he was just playing to his base.
However, both the liberal columnists, even the more liberal of the two, confessed that they were disturbed by content in the videos.
The Wanderer asked a conservative Arizona GOP campaign consultant, Constantin Querard, if he thought Ducey’s order was more substance or show. Querard replied on July 24:
“I think Gov. Ducey is sincere in his pro-life beliefs, so I’m sure his intent is sincere. Given how pro-life and pro-child the state legislature is, I’m sure they’ll move substantive legislation through next session if it is needed. So, while the…impact of the step may not be immediately clear, it is good to see them taking concrete steps to ensure that the trafficking of baby parts does not happen here in Arizona.”
Republican Ducey campaigned for the governorship as a pro-lifer last year against pro-abortion Democrat Fred DuVal, who said a 14-year-old girl should be able to have an abortion without parental consent. DuVal didn’t look happy when he answered this question at a candidate forum, but apparently he realized the extent of extremism that Planned Parenthood demands of Democrat politicians.
In his July 20 statement, Ducey said: “The footage released by the Center for Medical Progress regarding the alleged sale and trafficking of aborted fetal tissue and body parts by Planned Parenthood is horrifying and has no place in a civilized society. I am calling on the Department of Health Services to conduct a thorough review of the law and immediately promulgate emergency rules designed to prohibit the illegal sale of any tissue from an unborn child.
“This is consistent with federal law and will deter action that we all agree is abhorrent,” Ducey said. “Further, I have instructed ADHS to provide any and all assistance required to [Arizona] Attorney General [Mark] Brnovich in any efforts conducted by his office.”
One of the Arizona Republic columnists wrote: “I don’t know when a woman’s right to choose should give way to a baby’s right not to have its head crushed in and its body parts distributed to make lives better for the lucky ones who made it through the birth canal.” She added:
“I do know that Ducey’s call for rules to ban the sale of fetal tissue is about pandering to the base — a sideshow that allows us to avoid pondering the uncomfortable question that we’d rather not confront.”
Among other governor’s reactions, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said the Nucatola video “is shocking and gruesome. This same organization is seeking to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans. I have instructed Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals to conduct an immediate investigation into this alleged evil and illegal activity and to not issue any licenses until this investigation is complete. I am also asking the FBI to assist DHH in investigating this alleged criminal activity by this organization.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued news releases after each of the two videos. After the second one, Abbot said:
“This latest video showing yet another Planned Parenthood senior official negotiating the price of unborn baby body parts is more than just callous and morally bereft, it may be criminal. The video appears to directly contradict Planned Parenthood’s statement last week that they do not earn a profit for selling body parts. Today’s new grotesque revelations necessitate that Texas expand its investigation into this abhorrent practice.”
The Texas governor had said the first video “is unnerving and appalling. In light of the video, I have directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to conduct an immediate investigation of this alleged practice, in addition to a separate investigation ordered by the Texas Office of the Attorney General.”
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s statement said: “Kansas remains committed to a culture that respects the dignity of life at all stages. Recent videos show Planned Parenthood employees treating the unborn as commodities as they discuss the sale of tissue and organs. This does not reflect the culture of life most Kansans want. We now call upon the Kansas Board of Healing Arts to address the issue of sale of tissue and organs from the unborn in its inspections of Kansas medical offices.
“Human life has dignity at all stages of life. Senate Bill 95, banning dismemberment abortion in Kansas, prevents the barbaric procedure of dismembering an unborn child. We must remind ourselves and others that unborn children are just that — children — with certain inalienable rights that we must respect and protect,” Brownback said.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal’s office issued a statement July 16 saying he “is committed to protecting life at all stages, particularly the most vulnerable and defenseless among us. In light of recent revelations regarding alleged illegal Planned Parenthood activity and to ensure this horrific practice is not occurring here, the governor is directing the Department of Community Health and the Department of Public Health to conduct a joint review of the clinics run by Planned Parenthood Southeast in Georgia.”
Social Sickness
These governors are all pro-life Republicans. On the other hand, prominent liberal Democrat governors like Jerry Brown of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York, who claim to be Catholic, are firmly in Planned Parenthood’s pocket and have no interest in allowing any dignity or protection of unborn babies and their mothers from PP vampires.
More than 60 Minnesota state legislators signed a letter asking that state’s liberal Democrat Gov. Mark Dayton for an investigation. Dayton refused. State Rep. Peggy Bennett was quoted, “It just broke my heart, to see how people could callously and flippantly just talk about pulling a baby apart in the womb while they’re eating lunch.”
Much of the discredit for the social sickness that gave birth to these abortion horrors can be laid at the door of leading media pro-abortion propagandist The New York Times and its rigid agenda beginning in the 1960s. The Times set itself up as the template for the news, and other media liberals willingly swallowed the sickness.
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