A top official at the Planned Parenthood chapter defunded by Gov. Rick Perry (R., Texas) and Gov. Bobby Jindal (R., La.) admitted to breaking federal abortion laws to harvest organs in an undercover video.
The video, shot by undercover videographers from the non-profit Center for Medical Progress, show Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, talking about the ways Planned Parenthood doctors can alter abortion procedures to ensure the recovery of organs.
"We can make that happen so we have a higher chance," she says in the 15-minute-long video. "When it matters, you know in the cases of when it’s mattered, you know, physicians also need an intact specimen, they can make it happen."
While abortion providers are allowed to sell fetal remains to recoup storage costs, it is illegal to profit from the exchange. It is also a violation of federal law to change the abortion methods and procedures in order to harvest organs. Planned Parenthood has distanced itself from its officials caught on camera and denied wrongdoing, despite the fact that four officials have been caught on tape admitting to using different methods to deliver organs to prospective buyers.
Farrell told the investigators that altering abortion methods to better harvest organs comes with a price, but the organization has ways of hiding higher prices so it doesn’t look like they are profiting from the practice.
"If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. It’s all just a matter of line items," she says.
A Louisiana Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast spokesman did not return request for comment.
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast is the subject of an ongoing investigation from Louisiana Governor and GOP presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal. Jindal announced Monday that he ordered the state Department of Health and Hospitals to cut off taxpayer funding of the chapter in the scandal.
"It has been shocking to see reports of the alleged activities taking place at Planned Parenthood facilities across the country. Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life. It has become clear that this is not an organization that is worthy of receiving public assistance from the state," Jindal said in a release.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry defunded the group in 2011 and has stood by that decision after Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton attacked him for the decision.
"Secretary Clinton should explain to the American people why she supports an organization that rips apart and sells the body parts of aborted babies. I am proud to have defunded Planned Parenthood in Texas, and support efforts to defund them at the federal level," he told the Washington Free Beacon. "I have also called for the revocation of Planned Parenthood’s federal non-profit status. My policies in Texas have proven that you can protect women’s health while also protecting human life."
Planned Parenthood’s national operations collect $500 million per year in taxpayer dollars, about 40 percent of its revenue streams. Clinton, who has called the videos "disturbing," oversaw the disbursement of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to the nation’s top abortion provider from foreign policy agencies during her tenure as secretary of state. She has received 20 times more money from abortion providers than the rest of the Democratic field combined and named Planned Parenthood chief Cecile Richards’ daughter a top campaign official in Iowa.
Senate Democrats blocked GOP efforts on Monday to defund Planned Parenthood and send tax dollars to local health care clinics instead. Three congressional committees and several states are now investigating organ harvesting practices at the organization.
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Update 3:03 P.M.: Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast denied that it profited from organ sales in a press release. It did not address Farrell's statements concerning abortion methods.
"We have taken part in such worthy studies in the past, following all laws and the highest medical and ethical standards," it said in the release.