“In the 11th Center for Medical Progress video, the macabre culture of Planned Parenthood is again on full display,” said AUL’s Dr. Charmaine Yoest.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (10-27-15) – In the 11th undercover video released today by the Center for Medical Progress, “the macabre culture of Planned Parenthood is again on full display,” noted Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest. “Once again we see exposed, the ugly—and potentially illegal—reality of the abortion business run by Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood abortionist Dr. Amna Dermish literally laughs about the prospect of removing a baby’s head intact in order to harvest his or her brain in exchange for money, saying ‘this will give me something to strive for.’”
The video confirms the wisdom of several states, including Texas, that have opted to disentangle taxpayers from Planned Parenthood’s grisly abortion business and substantiates the need for further investigation. “The abortion process described by Planned Parenthood abortionist Dr. Amna Dermish confirms the need to investigate whether Planned Parenthood performs illegal partial-birth abortions in order to obtain intact organs from aborted infants.”
Dr. Dermish, who performs later-term abortions at Planned Parenthood in Austin, Texas, explains to the CMP undercover actors that she was trained by PPFA Senior Medical Director, Dr. Deborah Nucatola. In a video that was released in August, Dr. Nucatola similarly described an abortion process with a troubling resemblance to the description of an illegal partial-birth abortion—deliberately changing a baby to breech presentation so that the mother is dilated enough by the time the abortionist is ready to deliver the living baby’s head.
On September 17, AUL President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health that the CMP videos are further evidence of corporate-wide malfeasance at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates.
In her testimony before the Committee, Dr. Yoest detailed how Planned Parenthood’s brazen public opposition to the federal and state laws restricting its use of partial-birth abortion, killing infants mere inches away from birth, predates the CMP investigative footage. Dr. Yoest testified that “it bears remembering that Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) along with several of its Planned Parenthood affiliates also challenged this legal restraint to its ability to run its business in a ‘disturbingly similar’ fashion to infanticide.”
It now appears that losing in court may not have stopped Planned Parenthood from continuing its barbaric partial-birth abortion practice.
Dr. Yoest testified that the CMP videos raise probable cause that Planned Parenthood violates the law. “In her discussion with undercover actors,” Dr. Yoest testified, “Planned Parenthood’s Dr. Nucatola defiantly dismisses the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban—intended to uphold the integrity of the medical profession and draw a bright line against infanticide— as ‘up to interpretation’ for abortionists like herself.”
Today’s video confirms the need to conduct a thorough investigation about what that “interpretation” entails.
“The hard work of investigating possible illegal conduct and profiteering at Planned Parenthood is the correct response to all the evidence gathered to date on Planned Parenthood’s conduct,” said Dr. Yoest. “As Planned Parenthood is the leading abortionist chain in the nation, enriched by half-a-billion dollars each year from taxpayers, multiple investigations are required to unravel the flow of funds as well as the possibly illegal actions taking place inside the scandal-ridden organization. Americans United for Life has presented legal analysis to Congress, and each of the committees has a limited field of authority in which to investigate and must be allowed to complete their reviews.”
The following is an overview of the pending Congressional investigations and their scope:
House Judiciary – investigating whether Planned Parenthood violated the federal partial-birth abortion act or the federal born alive infant protection act
House Energy and Commerce – investigating the procurement of fetal tissue
House Oversight Committee – investigating the financial angle of fetal tissue sales
House Select Committee – has a full, dedicated staff and the committee empowered to look at the overall issue, without interruption by other business
Senate Judiciary considering whether illegal abortion procedures are being uses and what happens to infants born alive during abortions
“Under Cecile Richards’ leadership, Planned Parenthood’s cancer screening and prevention services have been cut by more than half, while she’s grown her abortion business from 20% to 33% of all abortions performed,” observed Dr. Yoest. “And AUL has been hard at work documenting just want happens behind the closed doors of Big Abortion, calling for hearings into possible crimes and abuses.”
In July of 2011, AUL released an explosive exposé, “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood,” which documents known and alleged abuses including misuse of federal healthcare and family planning funds, failure to report criminal child sexual abuse, failure to comply with parental involvement laws, willingness to assist those involved in prostitution and/or sex trafficking, dangerous abuse of the abortion drug RU-486, misinformation about so-called “emergency contraception,” including the new drug ella, willingness to give women deceptive and false information, and a willingness to refer women to substandard clinics.
In September 2011, led by U.S. Congressman Cliff Stearns (then Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations), the Energy and Commerce Committee launched the first ever investigation into Planned Parenthood’s use of taxpayer dollars and its institutional policies and practices an investigation largely motivated by the troubling questions raised in this groundbreaking report.
In October 2012, AUL launched “The Planned Parenthood Exhibits: the continuing case for investigating the nation’s largest abortion provider.” The Exhibits background papers released every day in the month of October (Planned Parenthood’s anniversary month) document additional grounds to investigate, and ultimately de-fund, the abortion chain. The Exhibits serve an important role in exposing the true nature of Planned Parenthood and cover a broad range of issues including: recently unsealed “whistleblower” lawsuits alleging fraudulent billing practices at Planned Parenthood, Planned Parenthood’s health and safety violations, Planned Parenthood’s bullying of the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and Planned Parenthood’s lobbying and litigation efforts to oppose to common-sense laws.
For more information on AUL’s legal analysis of the CMP videos, click here.
