Another undercover "sting" video is making headlines, this time of a Planned Parenthood official discussing the transfer of organs from aborted fetuses, reports the Hill. The video comes from a group called the Center for Medical Progress. In it, people posing as employees of a company that procures organs dine out with a woman identified as Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services. She says things like, "A lot of people want intact hearts these days, because they're looking for specific nodes," and, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” In its headline, the CMP says Nucatola "uses partial-birth abortions to sell baby parts." But Planned Parenthood calls the video grossly misleading.
“At several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research, and we do this just like every other high-quality health care provider does—with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards,” says a spokesman. “In some instances, actual costs, such as the cost to transport tissue to leading research centers, are reimbursed, which is standard across the medical field.” GOP candidates such as Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal have been quick to slam the video. And the Washington Post zeroes in on the nonchalant nature of the conversation: The Planned Parenthood official is "sipping red wine while discussing in graphic detail how to abort a fetus to preserve its organs for medical research—and also the costs associated with sharing that tissue with scientists." The video could help efforts to ban abortions after 20 weeks, notes the Post. (More Planned Parenthood stories.)