While cable networks CNN and MSNBC on Tuesday looked the other way following the release of the disturbing video showing a Planned Parenthood executive discussing the sale of body parts from aborted babies, the Fox News Channel program Special Report offered a full report on the investigation by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) from chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream.
Host Bret Baier introduced Bream’s segment by describing the video as “startling” and one that “could put some in the abortion industry in a most uncomfortable position.”
Bream then outlined the contents of the video:
The Center for Medical Progress, or CMP, launched this website today by releasing a video it says is the result of a two-and-a-half-year undercover investigation into practices at Planned Parenthood. In the video shot in the Los Angeles restaurant last summer, a woman identified as Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, discusses the transfer of fetal body parts harvested after abortion.
After a soundbite from the video, Bream noted that “[f]ederal law bans the sale of human organs as well as commercial trafficking of body parts from an aborted fetus” with actors working for CMP even “ask[ing] if doctors could perform custom-tailored abortion with the goal of harvesting specific organs and hearts” (to which Nucatola confirmed as being a possible option).
Adding at the end of her report, Bream mentioned that “the woman identified as Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services says prices per body part would likely range from $30 to $100.”
In the moments since the release of CMP’s investigation, Planned Parenthood issued a statement responding to the video and defended their practice as merely wanting to “help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research.” As LifeNews.com pointed out, Planned Parenthood repeatedly referred to body parts of aborted babies as only “tissue.”
Also according to LifeNews.com, Nucatola deleted her Twitter account about an hour and a half after the video went live.
The top English and Spanish broadcast networks showed no interest in this story and censored it from their Tuesday evening newscasts
The relevant portions of the transcript from FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier on July 14 can be found below.
FNC’s Special Report with Bret Baier
July 14, 2015
6:20 p.m. Eastern
BRET BAIER: Startling revelations tonight that could put some in the abortion industry in a most uncomfortable position. It has to do with what happens after that procedure. Here's chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream.
SHANNON BREAM: The Center for Medical Progress, or CMP, launched this website today by releasing a video it says is the result of a two-and-a-half-year undercover investigation into practices at Planned Parenthood. In the video shot in the Los Angeles restaurant last summer, a woman identified as Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood, discusses the transfer of fetal body parts harvested after abortion.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL SERVICES DR. DEBORAH NUCATOLA: They just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as, “this clinic is selling tissue, this clinic is making money off of this.”
BREAM: Federal law bans the sale of human organs as well as commercial trafficking of body parts from an aborted fetus. CMP says the video was shot with actors posing as potential buyers, who asked if doctors could perform custom-tailored abortion with the goal of harvesting specific organs and hearts.
NUCATOLA: We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part. I’m going to basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.
BREAM: The actors also asked whether it would be possible to have some type of blanket agreement regarding the transfer of body parts with the national Planned Parenthood organization, rather than going through local affiliates. While there was apparent acknowledgment discussions had happened at the national level –
NUCATOLA: And at the end of the day, they just decided right now, it’s too touchy an issue for us to be an official middleman.
BREAM: Planned Parenthood called CMP, quote, “a well funded group established for the purpose of damaging planned parenthood’s mission,” adding, quote, “at several of our health centers, we help patients who want to donate tissue for scientific research...with full, appropriate consent from patients and under the highest ethical and legal standards. There is no financial benefit for tissue donation for either the patient or for Planned Parenthood.” In the video, the woman identified as Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services says prices per body part would likely range from $30 to $100. In its statement today, Planned Parenthood says some costs it incurs, such as transporting tissue, are reimbursed and says that is standard across the medical field. Brett?
BAIER: Amazing story. Thank you and one that we will follow. Shannon, thank you.
