Undercover footage of Planned Parenthood workers discussing the sale of baby body parts frayed relations between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the nation's top provider of abortions, according to emails published by Wikileaks.
The Clinton campaign went silent after the Center for Medical Progress began releasing videos of Planned Parenthood executives candidly discussing organ harvesting on July 15, 2015. She broke that silence on July 23, defending the organization's practices.
"I am hoping that this situation will not further undermine the very important services that Planned Parenthood provides," she said in South Carolina.
That same day Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards sent a thank you note to campaign chairman John Podesta. The two had gone back and forth in the wake of the controversy and appeared to have a phone discussion on July 18—the same day that Planned Parenthood released an apology video on YouTube.
Podesta told Richards that getting Hillary Clinton to defend the organization was not an easy task. He acknowledged that the candid footage had made the defense politically risky.
"Took a little convincing. The tapes do hurt," Podesta said.
Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden said that Richards' outreach to Podesta demonstrates that the organization recognizes its need for political cover for its questionable practices.
"Planned Parenthood knows it cannot withstand public scrutiny without the corrupt political establishment continually covering for it," he said. "The obvious tensions that the revelations about Planned Parenthood's baby-parts-for-profit program put on Planned Parenthood's relationship with its political allies demonstrate the universal disgust at Planned Parenthood's barbaric abortion business model and the depth of its crimes."
The videos did appear to affect how Clinton spoke about the organization. Shortly after defending the group, Clinton told the New Hampshire Union Leader that she found the imagery of doctors sifting through babies to identify organs "disturbing." She said she would support a congressional investigation into the practice as long as it focused on the entire industry and not just Planned Parenthood.
Podesta, whose emails were hacked by an organization reportedly working in concert with the Russian government, did not return request for comment about the nature of their phone conversations. Richards declined comment.
The damage did not last. By September the campaign team was attempting to make Clinton "the first presidential candidate ever (?) to visit a PP health center." On Sept. 24 Richards put Podesta in touch with Amy Taylor of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, its political arm.
"John spoke to Cecile, she was thrilled with the idea," Podesta Chief of Staff Sara Latham said in a Sept. 24 email.
Hours later another staffer relayed that Taylor had nixed the idea after conferring with the abortionist's legal team. She said that the group did not want to appear overtly political given Richards' upcoming appearance before the House Oversight Committee.
"They are now NOT comfortable moving forward with the event on Monday. Cecile is testifying before Congress on Tuesday and will be highlighting how their health work is not related to their political activity," scheduler Alex Hornbrook said. "They are still very enthusiastic about the concept but do not feel like this is the right time for this event."
Planned Parenthood endorsed Clinton in January, the first primary endorsement the group has ever made. The campaign paid thousands of dollars to the group for its field work in Iowa and embraced its agenda. Clinton now supports using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion and said that she supports late-term abortion up to the point of birth.
Even before the endorsement was made official, Clinton received 20 times as much money from Planned Parenthood executives as the rest of the Democratic field combined. Mallory Quigley, spokesman for the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said that Clinton chose "political expediency" and campaign cash over her "gut instinct" about the content of the video.
"Planned Parenthood’s biggest cheerleader laid low for a while, waiting for the horrifying discoveries to blow over," Quigley told the Washington Free Beacon. "Political expediency got the best of her in the end even though the tapes 'hurt.' Why? Planned Parenthood pledged to shell out $30 million to help elect Clinton."
The fallout from the Center for Medical Progress' undercover videos continues to affect the abortion industry. Planned Parenthood announced that it would no longer accept money from organ buyers in the wake of the videos. One of the abortionist's top California partners was charged with illegally profiting off of the sale of organ cells on Oct. 12.