A new Center for Medical Progress (CMP) video featuring previously unreleased footage of representatives from the National Abortion Federation (NAF) – the major trade group of abortion providers – shows the Planned Parenthood ally suggesting a “group purchasing program” to supply fetal tissue from aborted babies to buyers and encouraging them to exhibit at its annual meeting.
The new footage shows NAF’s Training & Education representatives responsible for planning the organization’s abortion trade shows in conversation with undercover investigators posing as representatives of a start-up company that procures aborted fetal tissue.
Both Planned Parenthood and fetal body parts wholesaler StemExpress executives have identified NAF to undercover investigators from CMP as a major partner in the sale of the body parts of aborted babies.
In the video, when the actors explain, “We do donate the fees that we get from our researchers, we give a portion back to the clinics as just a thank you for letting us come in,” one NAF representative replies, “Yeah, it definitely sounds like something some of our members would be really interested in.”
The second NAF representative agrees this kickback arrangement to split the money from fetal parts as “a win-win” for the abortion clinics.
Both NAF representatives also suggest that the “procurement company” plan to exhibit at NAF’s annual meeting and join NAF’s group purchasing program as an approved vendor for its member abortion clinics.
“We have an exhibit hall and then we also have the general conference,” one NAF representative says. “But I mean, this is a very great way to talk to our members. We have a group purchasing program through our membership. So it seems like this would be a really great option to be able to offer our members as well.”
In footage already released by CMP, CEO of StemExpress Cate Dyer admits her company “gives money” to NAF as well. StemExpress advertised “financial profits” for abortion clinics in a brochure to supply fetal tissue.
Deborah VanDerhei, the National Director of the Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS) at Planned Parenthood, says, “I have been talking to the executive director of the National Abortion Federation, we’re trying to figure this out as an industry, about how we’re going to manage remuneration,” for fetal body parts.
David Daleiden, project lead at CMP, and colleague Sandra Merrit turned themselves in to law enforcement officials last week in Houston. In what two pro-choice law professors called a “stunning act of legal jujitsu,” Planned Parenthood was cleared of any wrongdoing by a Harris County grand jury, while Daleiden and Merrit were indicted instead. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson has faced prior allegations of bias, as the Associated Press reported.
Daleiden led the project that produced a series of videos exposing the abortion giant’s apparent practices of selling the body parts of aborted babies and altering the position of babies during abortion in order to harvest the most intact organs.
“From the very first moment the National Abortion Federation met purported baby parts traffickers in our investigative journalism study, NAF was eager for them to attend its meetings and pay its member clinics for fetal body parts,” notes Daleiden adding:
Multiple Planned Parenthood executives and the leadership of StemExpress told our investigators many times that NAF was a key partner for fetal tissue harvesting. The fact is, the National Abortion Federation is a key accomplice in Planned Parenthood and StemExpress’ scheme to profit off baby body parts, and for this reason they are desperate to suppress the freedom of the citizen press and cover up the evidence of their illicit dealings.
NAF is seeking a permanent gag order on CMP to prevent the pro-life group from speaking or publishing on any of the events at their annual meetings.
As Life Legal Defense Foundation – which represents Daleiden as co-counsel with the Thomas More Society – observes, NAF has been granted a preliminary injunction by Judge William Orrick to keep Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress from publishing material recorded at NAF’s annual meetings in 2014 and 2015.
According to a press statement:
Essentially, Judge Orrick’s ruling came down to a balancing test that pitted Daleiden’s First Amendment rights against NAF’s assertions that continued publication of videos will result in “irreparable harm.” The First Amendment lost.
Ironically, Judge Orrick justified this incursion on the First Amendment in part by reference to other protected First Amendment activity by third parties, namely Internet comments that he characterizes as “threats and harassment” against abortion providers. In a further blow to the First Amendment, he blames all incidents of illegal activity at abortion clinics since July on CMP and Daleiden’s earlier videos releases.
In his ruling, Orrick concluded that “the majority of the recordings lack any sort of public interest.”
“The videos have resulted in numerous Congressional and Senate hearings, the creation of a select Congressional panel to investigate Planned Parenthood’s activities, and a historic vote by both the House and Senate to defund Planned Parenthood,” notes Alexandra Snyder, Life Legal’s executive director. “It is unclear from Judge Orrick’s ruling what additional events would have to transpire to trigger the threshold of sufficient public interest in this case.”
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