SBA Pro-Life America is launching a new season of the Exposed: Abortion In America podcast focused on uncovering the reality of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry. Released today, our first episode is an exclusive interview with David Daleiden.
David is the undercover journalist who made the groundbreaking discovery about Planned Parenthood’s role in the harvesting and selling baby body parts for profit. David and his team met with top level abortion doctors and directors and discovered some of the most barbaric and sinister activity in our modern age. David’s findings contributed to Congress referring Planned Parenthood to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges. Listen to this episode to hear firsthand about the secrets that Planned Parenthood has worked so hard to bury.
Episode 16 on the following platforms:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-16-how-david-daleiden-uncovered-planned-parenthoods/id1769630555?i=1000699059770
0:00: David, it is such an honor to be speaking with you today.
0:05: You are an investigative journalist, a writer, a staunch defender of life.
0:09: You’re a man in the arena and a hero to so many pro-lifrs.
0:14: You have put so much on the line to uncover some of the darkest secrets of the abortion movement in these past 10 years.
0:22: And everyone at SBA, Susan B.
0:24: Anthony, Pro-Life America is just so grateful that you would take the time out of your busy schedule to sit down with us and to talk about your experience with the abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
0:35: now, let’s get right into it, David.
0:36: Can you tell us about your background and what first brought you into the pro-life movement?
0:41: Sure, so, for any, just to kind of recap for any of your listeners, who, who either are kind of newer to some of, some of this set of issues or or or or maybe don’t don’t remember from everything that happened and started 10, almost 10 years ago in 2015.
1:00: So I’m the founder and president of the Center for Medical Progress.
1:03: We’re a nonprofit citizen journalism investigative reporting organization.
1:07: , and we’re the organization that was responsible for the undercover video series, 9 years ago that documented Planned Parenthood’s top level abortion leadership, callously negotiating the harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts.
1:26: I, I have, I mean, I have cared about this issue for a really long time, really ever since I was a I was a teenager, when I was growing up in Northern California.
1:37: , I, I, I had a, you know, I had an experience where I, I, you know, people were arguing about abortion at school, and I don’t really have a whole lot of, I don’t really have a whole lot of like facts or or deep knowledge about about the issue.
1:56: I think I was probably 13 or 14, and so I went home and I started just researching, and googling it because something seemed off, but I just couldn’t really put my finger on it.
2:07: And I discovered two facts really quickly that really convicted me very strongly and and really have, you know, have never, you know, and have never left me to to this day.
2:18: And the first, the first thing that I discovered at that time, this was probably in 2003 or 2004, was that at that time there was, you know, well over a million abortion, almost 1.3 million abortions every year in our country.
2:33: So it’s not just it’s not just some once once in a blue moon kind of, you know, extremely unusual medical circumstance in which babies are killed by abortion, but this is something that happens routinely and happens really on a, on a unbelievably massive scale.
2:50: And then the second fact that I discovered at that time was I saw a photograph of what it looks like when a baby is killed by an abortion, and that makes all of the rhetoric.
3:00: Really real and really visceral, and really impossible to ignore, that it’s not just a talking point, that they’re, you know, that that they’re that they’re killing babies that, you know, that that abortion kills actual recognizable babies who are individuals just like you or I, and this happens well over a million times, this has been happening, you know, close to or over a million times a year in our country every year for as long as I’ve been alive.
3:27: , and that puts it on the, on just sort of the big scale of, of historic injustices where people look back on that, you know, 50, 100 years in the future, and you want to say, wow, if I had been around at that time, if I had been alive, I would have been one of the people who was different, right?
3:45: I would have been one of the people who stood up and said, no, this is wrong, you can’t treat people that way.
3:49: , and so, so I, you know, I felt very strongly convicted by all of that.
3:55: I started, getting involved with sort of local, local pro-life groups.
4:00: The 1st, 1st pro-life organization I was ever involved with was the UC Davis Students for Life as a high school student, growing up in Davis, California.
4:08: , and UC Davis Students for Life was really interesting because, you know, they’re connected to kind of other pro-life groups at different University of California campuses, and I remember the first sort of event that I went to with them was a was a conference at UC Berkeley where they had like, they had like a group of like, Hindu pro-life vegans who were there and they had a group of like, they had, you know, they had feminists for life of America, they had Democrats for life there, like, so, so I had a I had a very interesting like sort of early exposure to a very to a very diverse and kind of like non-orthodox set of of pro-life advocacy.
4:54: , and which I think is, is sort of different from a lot of people or a lot of people don’t necessarily like expect that.
5:00: They think that you know you must be somebody from like a, you know, from like a homeschool background or something like that, which I’m not a grip in the, you know, in the public school system in Northern California, but I’m Catholic obviously, but, but, but the sort of the mix of influences that sort of like really first like clued me into and and and.
5:21: And sort of pointed the direction for me in terms of in terms of pro-life advocacy, was, you know, was was was kind of unique, like to the time and place that I come from, and I’m actually I’ve I’ve only gotten more and more thankful for that over the years because at the end of the day, you know, this is a this is a really big issue that involves really core human values and really universal human values, and certainly for any enlightened democracy that would exist in the world.
5:51: And so, and so I just, I’m, I’m really thankful to, you know, to have always, to have always had that, that kind of, that kind of perspective on, on what it means to be pro-life.
6:05: but so anyway, so I, you know, I, I, I ended up, you know, it’s not a secret.
6:10: I, I met Lila Rose from live action in when we were both in high school.
6:15: , and that kind of got me, you know, got me involved with like the early form of live action, and I was, I was director of research with their organization for several years from 2008 to 2013, so I, I got a lot of exposure to kind of the world of, of undercover journalism and and things like that.
6:36: I worked on a lot of those early undercover projects.
6:39: , and in 2013, by 2013, I had just, you know, I had become really Really, really convicted about the about the particular topic of selling aborted baby body parts.
6:56: I just think that this is a phenomenon that is is so particularly barbaric, and unjust, and tragic, and I really felt that it deserved to have to have a a a really specific kind of focus.
7:13: , and that that story really deserves, to be told, and that, and that that story really, really, highlights a lot of the most important things that we need to be talking about a lot of the most important values that we need to be talking about when it comes to, abortion policy and practice in our communities.
7:35: And so, so I started the Center for Medical Progress in 2013.
7:40: , to monitor and report on medical ethics and advances that impact human dignity with a particular focus on fetal experimentation and the trafficking of aborted babies.
7:52: and so, so we’re most well known for our groundbreaking undercover, undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood’s participation in the harvesting and sale of aborted baby body parts.
8:03: , so the videos, you know, we, we were, I, I trained a team of 66 total undercover investigators, including myself, to go undercover at the highest levels of the abortion industry for almost 3 years.
8:19: you know, we had meetings with their, with their top level abortion doctors, top level research officials, And I’ve, I’ve probably, I’ve probably spoken to face to face personally, at least 2 dozen, maybe up to, you know, and maybe even up to, you know, in terms of having like, you know, high quality like in like detailed conversations, I’ve probably had those with maybe, you know, maybe 20 to 30, maybe even up almost up to 50 either abortion doctors or Or or heavily involved abortion workers about late term abortions and harvesting and selling baby body parts.
9:00: So, I know, I think that is, you know, kind of a unique part of my career.
9:04: I have, you know, I have, I have spent probably more quality time with more people.
9:09: People who are more directly responsible for killing babies and abortions in our country than you know than almost anybody else involved in in pro-life advocacy, you know, the only exceptions would be like actual, you know, people who used to work in the, you know, in the industry.
9:25: so, so.
9:27: , so anyway, so, so I know I’m trying to answer a simple question about my background here, but, so anyway, so, so to, you know, to sort of land the plane, as they say, and bring us to now, so we, you know, we released the undercover videos in the summer of 2015.
9:43: I mean they went viral, they totally changed the conversation on abortion in our country at that time, on a nationwide level.
9:52: I, you know, I am personally very, very grateful that we were able to Put a strong focus on the humanity of our brothers and sisters in the womb who are threatened by the abortion industry.
10:05: With those videos with seeing actual taxpayer funded Planned Parenthood abortion leaders talking about the little baby hearts and lungs and livers and brains, that they would be so careful not to crush with their forceps so they could sell them for money afterwards.
10:21: that, that put, you know, that put that put a spotlight though on the humanity.
10:25: Of of all of us when we are, when, when, when, when we are, when we are in our our prenatal part of life, and that, and it put and it put a spotlight on just the, the absolute brutality of industrial scale.
10:46: Abortion, as it exists in our, as it existed in our country at that point, and I think that that, I think that that, that, that focus on the humanity and the injustice of the abortion industry, I think that was a big part in activating, Activating, activating, different states and, and public officials, to, you know, to, to press for stronger, more protective laws, and I think, I, I, I think let us very, very very securely to the to the, to the Dobbs case and to the overturn of Roe v.
11:25: Wade, you know, not even 3 years ago.
11:28: , so it’s a totally different landscape now.
11:31: I’m really happy that, that my organization and my team’s work was able to contribute, you know, a little, a little piece to changing history like that, and, and now, you know, now we’re, you know, now we’re almost 10 years later and we’re talking about, you know, people are seriously talking about Planned Parenthood defunding and There are entire states and swaths of our country where children and families are protected from the predatory abortion industry, and so there’s just, there’s so much to be thankful for and it’s really, it’s really an honor and a and a privilege to be a little part of it.
12:09: So my background.
12:10: Thank you so much for giving us all that background about yourself and about your organization and I think you’re exactly right.
12:18: Like your discoveries, your bravery has inspired thousands, if not millions of fellow pro-lifrs from the the policy end of things and also just on a more local level.
12:31: Like I was talking with my dad last night actually in preparation for getting to speak with you because he’s a huge fan of yours, and he was saying that when he watched your videos, when he saw your bravery, It inspire it ignited within him his own little fire and it led him to want to, you know, go and pray outside of abortion centers and things like that.
12:56: And it’s really amazing how the bravery of one man can just set a spark for an entire nation, and I think that that’s really what your action has done.
13:06: And so I just want to say on a personal level, like thank you for doing that.
13:10: Thank you for for igniting that that fire within people because when they see the inhumane ways that these little babies are being spoken about, that creates anger in an entire nation, and that is what you’ve done.
13:26: So thank you so much, David, for that.
13:30: was there an initial lead that caused you to suspect?
13:34: That Planned Parenthood could be participating in this illegal activity.
13:40: Yeah, so, you know, so the, so the, the trafficking and sale of aborted baby body parts and the harvesting of aborted babies for, for, frankly, government sponsored experimentation at taxpayer funded laboratories across the country.
13:56: This is something that didn’t just start recently.
13:59: This is something that’s been going on for quite a long time.
14:01: It’s been going on in a in a in a really Systematic and organized way, certainly since since abortion was was mass legalized in the 1970s, but it even, you know, there’s even there’s particular locations that have been involved in this for, you know, for stretching back even even longer than that.
14:21: But there was, there was a really Important early investigative journalism work done by a journalist named Suzanne Reni from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who in the, I think it was the late 1980s was the first edition of her of her report, maybe maybe the early 1990s and then it was updated later in the 1990s.
14:43: she wrote this really foundational early book called Beyond Abortion A Chronicle of Fetal Experimentation, and that was sort of the first really big, expose, of the harvesting and trafficking of aborted babies for, for experimental purposes by, by Big Pharma and by government laboratories, and by by different academic universities and university laboratories, and and the participation of, of different abortion clinics and and abortion chains within that.
15:20: , and then several years after, after Suzanne Reni’s book came out, Mark Crutcher, and his organization Life Dynamics did a really groundbreaking undercover, it actually, I guess you wouldn’t call that undercover.
15:35: They, they did a really groundbreaking investigative journalism.
15:38: A report of their own about the sale of baby body parts at big abortion centers across the country, and they actually they had whistleblowers coming forward and and there was a there was an ABC 2020 report that was done based on that.
15:56: There were early congressional early attempts at congressional investigations based on that and.
16:03: And and and unfortunately it, you know, there was, there was a lot of focus on it.
16:08: There was a lot of attention in 200, 2001 when that started coming out, a lot of that led to the to the final, the final passage of the federal partial birth abortion law, but then, but then after that everything kind of went quiet and people, you know, people didn’t really focus on it that much.
16:29: so when I first, I, when I, I first learned about The, when I first learned about the, the phenomenon of selling aborted baby body parts in our country, this was in about 2009 or 2010.
16:43: it had been, you know, eight or nine years at that point since it had really been talked about in a in a really big public way in national media, and the only real sources that were that were out there that you could look through were, you know, were the life dynamics investigation.
16:59: Suzanne Reni’s, Suzanne Reni’s book, and then every so often you could, you would, you would find still, you know, at that time, you know, 10 years later you would find scientific journal studies published reports where they would say, you know, we were experimenting with aborted fetal livers or aborted fetal brains from 20 to 24 weeks gestation.
17:21: , and we got them from Advanced Bioscience Resources in Northern California, or we got them from Stem Express, or we got them from Planned Parenthood San Diego, or we got them from Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Texas.
17:33: And and that and that was it.
17:35: That was, that was all that was was out there, but, you know, but but in reviewing all that, you know, in the life dynamics investigation, there was a Planned Parent, a big Planned Parenthood abortion center in Kansas was the source of a lot of their information.
17:47: , the, the, the many of the, you know, many of the published studies that were being published, you know, around that time in the, in the 2009, 2010, 2011, were making references to getting getting fetal body parts from Planned Parenthood.
18:05: so, so it, so it wasn’t it it wasn’t a total secret.
18:10: If you looked carefully, it was clear that that Planned Parenthood, was involved in the supply of aborted babies and their body parts for government sponsored experiments.
18:22: , what really clued me in that there was something, that there was something, that, that there was something really illegal going on though.
18:31: We, were, were two things.
18:34: number one, there were, there, there was not just one, but there was there there was several different like wholesaler companies that were actually starting up around that time, with the just with the sole business model that they would harvest body parts from inside the Planned Parenthood clinics and then turn around and resell them.
18:56: To, to, to, to just different laboratory customers across the country.
19:03: One of those companies was called Stem Express.
19:06: And Stem Express explicitly advertised on their website that they would return a percentage of the fees that they would that they would that they would that they would charge that they would charge their their research customers or their laboratory customers, as they call them, they say, they say we return a portion of our researcher fees to the abortion clinics that work with us.
19:30: And I was like, wow, that’s, you know, that that sounds that that sounds not correct.
19:34: It’s basically a profit sharing mechanism for, for, you know, for the, for the abortion clinics that provide, you know, that provide them with body parts, and so however many that this wholesaler can sell, they then, you know, there’s 10 or 25% or whatever the whatever the portion is that they then return to the abortion clinic.
19:53: you know, the federal law on selling aborted baby body parts is actually pretty clear.
19:58: there’s been a lot of like There’s been a lot of games played with it, as there are with any with any law that is important and that that governs conduct that that that that powerful bad actors are heavily invested in, but, you know, the federal law is very clear that, you know, that you’re you’re not allowed to engage in any kind of quid pro quo, for the transfer of any human fetal tissue whatsoever.
20:24: And the only exceptions are for specific are are for are for actual reimbursements of actual costs of of making a tissue donation.
20:35: , and when you just have a scheme where you are just direct revenue sharing from your sale of aborted baby body parts, that’s not a cost reimbursement, that’s a quid pro quo that you give us body parts, you let us harvest body parts to sell inside of your clinic, and we’ll give you 15% of what we make on it.
20:55: That’s called the quid pro quo, that’s a sale and that’s a crime.
20:59: , so that’s the, so that’s the first thing that really kind of tipped me off that like, you know, they’re not just still like donating fetuses, they’re, you know, they’re selling aborted baby body parts and this is, and, and this has been going on for too long with nobody saying anything about it.
21:13: , that was the first thing, and then the second thing is that some of these research studies that were being published talked about, talked about getting talked about getting intact hearts harvested from the late term aborted babies and then connecting them to either doing different experiments on them or connecting them to to actual like laboratory machines that would keep them beating.
21:37: So that means that the hearts were were still beating while they were being harvested.
21:40: , so those two things really, you know, you know, being like kind of out there in plain sight if you knew where to look, really, I, I, I kind of, you know, that’s, that’s more than just a clue, you know, it’s more than just like cluing you in that something, something bad is happening or something wrong is being done.
21:59: Those are, those are pretty big red flags, as they say.
22:03: , but those were, those were two, those are two early, you know, early facts that, that, that helped convince me, that it would be really important to do this undercover study.
22:16: Yeah, oh my goodness.
22:18: hearing you talk just reminds me of that verse, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and I think that that’s what you experienced in real time of just seeing the depth to which people will go for the love of money, So that brings me to my next question.
22:36: can you walk us through some of the risks that you faced in order to begin this operation of exposing Planned Parenthood?
22:45: Well, I mean it’s this is gonna sound a little cliche, but I think the big the biggest risk is not trying, right?
22:51: I mean, at the end of the day, like those of us who are involved in pro-life advocacy, like we’re doing it because we’re concerned about babies who are being killed in really brutal and barbaric ways by a taxpayer funded nationwide industry.
23:06: And so at the end of the day, you know, like we’re not the real victims involved in all of this.
23:11: We are not the, you know, we, we’re the ones who made it out alive, right?
23:15: Like we’re not the ones who have forceps being put on our bodies to rip us apart and then sell our body parts afterwards.
23:21: , and, and, and, and many of us even are not the, you know, are, are not actually the, the families, the fathers or the mothers who are having to like, live with, you know, with being the parent of a dead child for the rest of their lives because they were either abandoned or lied to by a taxpayer funded profit driven business that is gonna make money off of them and their children by hurting them and killing them.
23:47: , that’s, you know, we’re like, we’re actually relatively fortunate and relatively lucky, if we’re, if, if we’re in a position to be able to speak out against the practice of, of abortion and, and advocate for justice for the victims.
24:05: So, so I just, I think, you know, I’ve always kind of felt like in a situation like that the biggest risk is saying nothing, being silent, and, and, and not trying.
24:14: But, but, but, you know, but I, but the, the, The, the issue of the topic of selling aborted baby body parts had been, you know, had been so quiet for almost a decade at the time that I was just starting to construct construct CMP’s undercover investigation, that, you know, I was a little, I was a little uncertain at the very beginning when I was first training the other undercover investigators.
24:46: , and we were first just starting to do our, our undercover networking with, with different Planned Parenthood officials.
24:54: we basically it was, it was really like a, you know, kind of like a secret shopper style, style investigation is what we did, you know, it was like a secret shopper is somebody who like goes, you know, sort of goes undercover like.
25:05: To a, you know, to a shopping mall, you know, to like the Louis Vuitton store or to a to the Hugo Boss store or something, and they’re, you know, they’re they’re not really trying to buy anything, but they’re there to kind of investigate like the customer service and the quality of the merchandise and stuff like that, and then, you know, either report back for their magazine or for their consumer protection.
25:24: , organization or whatever it is, and so we were basically doing like a, we, my, my team, our our whole undercover investigation was, you know, was basically set up like, like being secret shoppers for aborted baby body parts.
25:37: So we were posing as representatives of a of a middleman wholesaler biotech company, just like many of the existing ones that were cropping up at that time.
25:46: , going in with the business model with the proposed business model of saying we would like to come into your, you know, to come into your abortion clinics and harvest the organs from the aborted fetuses after, after you’ve done your abortions and then resell them to our research.
26:02: and then we’ll, we will give you a portion of the money that we make from doing that.
26:06: And, and won’t that be great?
26:08: And at the, and at the very beginning of the investigation, I was, I was so concerned that like it had been the issue had been so quiet for like 10 years at that point.
26:18: I was so concerned that if we were, if we, you know, if we, if we kind of said too much about it up front, or, or if we didn’t use exactly the right language to really like, really gingerly and kind of like,, sort of like vaguely hint at it with these abortion doctors that they would just that everybody would freak out and everybody would clam up and nobody would talk to us.
26:40: And and and and and so so I was very careful like at the very beginning, I, you know, I said to the team, I said, you know, we’re, you know, we’re not even gonna tell them like, we’re not even gonna say fetal tissue, we’re gonna fetal organs, like we’re going to ask about like their specimens, like after their procedures and just be like, all, you know, all of this very like Latinate like euphemistic kind of language, and and and and I was so shocked and so surprised from the very first undercover conversations that we did.
27:08: , literally all we had to do was, was say to these Planned Parenthood abortion doctors and their leadership, hey, like we love what you do, like we think you’re such heroes, we think you’re, you’re doing such great things, like with all the abortions that you do, and and we would really like to come in and and and pay you to allow us to to harvest fetal organs.
27:31: And they were so they were so happy to welcome one more player to the table.
27:37: There was no, you know, there was, they had no, there was no shame, there was no embarrassment, like they’re, you know, we’re we’re over here talking about, you know, specimens from your procedures, and they’re like, oh yeah, like you want the fetal tissue, you want brains, you want eyes, you want livers, you know, we’ll do this on ultrasound, they were they were way more.
27:53: They were, they were way more disturbingly comfortable with the with with the activities of harvesting and selling aborted baby hearts and lungs and livers and brains than I thought they were going to be at the very beginning, and that was that was, I mean it’s, you know, it’s it’s it it it was a little ironic because I was so, you know, I was so kind of concerned about it at the very beginning.
28:17: , about the way that these conversations would, would, you know, whether these conversations were even possible, but it was also, I mean, it was, you know, it was sad and it was disturbing, but especially sad to see people who otherwise, you know, doctors, right, who’ve gone to medical school, who like, who are, you know, who are supposed to be involved in caring for patients and caring for other people and doing no harm.
28:39: , but to be, but to be so eager to welcome one more player to the table to harvest and sell body parts from little babies who are just as recognizably human as you or I.
28:51: Yeah, I think that that is the most distressing aspect is that eagerness that I recognized.
28:58: I went back and watched some of your videos, and I was particularly struck by that first video that you posted on on your website, the Center for Medical Progress website, where, there’s just a an unfeeling tone of the doctors when they’re discussing like babies, children.
29:21: , and I don’t know if you could speak more to that, but How, how was it when you were having to act in this way?
29:31: Was there any element of you having to, like, take a gulp or take a minute to reflect on what you had just heard from the person that you were speaking to about baby body parts?
29:45: Yeah, there were, there were a lot of moments like that, and, and you know, one of one of the One of the I mean, one of, one just one of the tasks that you have to be prepared for in doing undercover work is that you’re not necessarily going to have the opportunity to reflect on all of the potentially really horrible things that you hear in the moment while it’s happening.
30:11: you do have to kind of compartmentalize that and like store it for later.
30:14: That’s the whole reason you’re, you know, that’s the whole reason you’ve got a video camera, right, is because you’re recording.
30:19: What’s being said and and you’re engaging in the conversation and you you are you are investigating particular topics and so you, you don’t actually have, have the time or the opportunity in that moment to reflect on what’s being said.
30:37: You have to, you have to be prepared to hear some really awful things and know that it’s being stored away, and it’s gonna be analyzed later, but, you know, but in the moment you still have to do the work, But, you know, I, I remember, I remember in particular when we had, we had our undercover business lunch with Doctor Deborah Ncatola, who was the who was at the time the senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Nationwide.
31:02: So that’s literally the the top abortion doctor at the entire organization who is responsible for training the other abortion doctors who’s responsible for writing the medical ethics and standard or medical standards and guidelines.
31:16: , manual for Planned Parenthood nationwide, which is basically their like their how-to book for how to run your abortion, your Planned Parenthood ranchised abortion clinic, and who was also who was also in charge of all the research abortions, in Los Angeles at that time as well.
31:33: In Southern California, and so we had, we had a a almost 3 hour long undercover business lunch meeting with her just to kind of get the whole lay of the land from Planned Parenthood’s perspective on harvesting and selling aborted baby body parts from their late term abortions.
31:48: And one of the particular questions that that I had for her is I asked, you know, if there’s a if there’s a particular body part that we need.
31:57: , are your doctors able to change the way that they’re doing the abortion in order to make sure that that we can that we can get that and we can make that sale?
32:07: And, and what she said was shocking on multiple levels.
32:10: I mean, I’ll never forget, not just the fact that she, she said yes, yes, they could, number one, which is a huge violation of federal law and the and the research regulations for for for experi for for any kind of experimentation or or how you how you treat human subjects participants number one.
32:32: But number 2, what she said what she said they could do, she didn’t just say, oh we’ll do it in a slightly different way, you know, a little bit more dilation or a little bit more time or something like that.
32:42: No, what she said is that, oh yeah, she said what what Planned Parenthood abortion doctors are actually really good at doing.
32:48: What we do at my clinic in Los Angeles in Southern California, we will do these abortions on, you know, with ultrasound guidance, so we know where we’re putting the forceps on the baby, so we know not to crush the specific body parts that you’re looking for, and using the ultrasound guidance with our forceps, we will flip the baby to a feet-first position.
33:10: And then slowly pull and guide the baby out in that breech feet-first position, so that there’s increasing dilation of the pregnant woman as the abortion is going on, so that at the end of it, you can even get the head, the calvarium, as they call it, of the baby out intact to harvest an intact brain.
33:30: , so what she described at this at at this undercover business lunch we were having at a fancy Southern California Los Angeles restaurant, we’re sitting there at this at at this table booth in the middle of this crowded LA fancy LA restaurant with with with wine and pasta and salad and fish.
33:50: And, and she’s, and, and she’s casually describing, oh yeah, we’ll use ultrasound guidance to flip the baby feet first, guide it out, and then at the end of it you’ll be able to get an intact head to sell the brain afterwards.
34:00: and when I heard that, I mean, I knew the camera was was still recording, I think I was sort of like mid forkful of the of the pasta that I was about to eat or something, and I and I and I sort of froze and I just kind of stopped.
34:12: I was viscerally disturbed and and a little.
34:19: It’s probably I mean it’s it’s probably a little bit of a mix of of fear and disgust, right, to hear about something like that being done to to another little person who hasn’t done anything wrong and hasn’t done anything to deserve that, just hearing about that being done to just hearing about that being done to an animal, let alone to a human being, is something that’s really hard to listen to, and it’s really hard to take another bite of your lunch after, after hearing something like that, And then number 3, hearing that description coming from a person who otherwise was really charismatic, and seemed fairly sensitive and, and concerned about about being a good doctor.
35:02: , was, was just, it was, it’s such a, it’s such a contradiction and such a, it’s just such a, it’s such a it’s it’s such a it’s such a horrible thing to hear coming from someone who otherwise would be a would be a really good doctor, And and so that is, you know, that’s and so that that that’s also kind of sad and kind of scary, to hear from, you know, to hear from anyone, but especially to hear from someone who otherwise is, you know, would, would be kind of part of the elites of society that people would look up to in any, in any in any peaceful and just civilization.
35:47: So, so yeah, so and but and and but that’s not the first time that we, you know, that that wasn’t that was not the first or the last time.
35:53: That that we heard something like that while undercover.
35:59: so there were, you know, there, there were definitely quite a few moments like that, and, and that is the, you know, that’s something that, that’s something that made it, you know, certainly made it difficult, but I also think that that’s that it’s it’s it’s moments like that, and it’s experiences like that, it’s conversations like that that that made Our undercover reporting so powerful because it highlights, it highlights the the the humanity, the values, and the And the and and and the frankly the violations of humanity that are that are so embedded in the practice of abortion.
36:41: We have a human baby being killed and harvested for human body parts by human doctors who are supposed to be taking care of human beings, and these are all of the all of the values, the rules being broken.
36:55: And the and the frankly traumatic feelings that are involved in all of that.
37:01: I think that those those conversations and those moments surface all of that and make it really clear and capture that on camera for all of history to see forevermore.
37:10: Yeah, wow, that is really powerful, David.
37:14: I just have to ask, where do you think that contradiction comes from?
37:18: Like, how can A doctor appear to care so much about their work and following the correct principles of the Hippocratic Oath and everything like that, yet talk so matter of factly and so eagerly about these procedures that result in the sale of baby body parts.
37:42: I wish that more of them would, would speak for themselves about it, you know, a lot of, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the abortion leadership of Planned Parenthood, they’re totally public figures and they’re happy to, you know, to come out in public, and talk about, you know, how much, you know, how badly they need like public support and taxpayer funding and all these different things, and, and among themselves, you know, they talk about how, you know, how, how proud they are of their abortion work and everything.
38:11: So I really, you know, there, you know, these are all in fairly intelligent, you know, articulate people, you know, I wish that they would just own it and they would come out publicly and and talk about the contradiction and, and why, you know, why they think this is justified and how they’re able to justify it and how they’re able to cope with it.
38:31: but, But, but they haven’t really done that for the, for the most part, which I think which I think tells you something about the relative levels of of confidence, in, in, in, in the truth of, of what they’re doing.
38:46: , but I think that, I think that, you know, I think that there are, you know, there are, you know, there are some people who are, you know, who have, you know, there are actually many people now who have come out of the abortion industry.
38:57: I’m thinking especially of, of people like people like Abby Johnson and and other voices like hers who could probably actually speak.
39:06: More eloquently than than I could about it, but I can, I can just speak from sort of my, my observations and and and, and what I’ve, you know, what I, what I’ve observed in the interactions that I’ve had with a lot of these people, and and I just think that it’s I I I don’t think it’s cliche.
39:23: I think it is a I think it is a truism that, you know, that hurt, hurt people hurt people and and I don’t think.
39:32: There’s, I mean, it’s, it’s interesting.
39:33: There’s a, you know, I’d say there’s kind of a, there’s kind of a, you know, there’s an interesting breakdown among the, the abortion doctors that I met, the proportion of them, you know, there’s, I’d say there’s maybe There’s maybe like 30% of them that I felt like, you know, they sort of reminded me of of they sort of reminded me of like a, you know, just like the sort of person who would run a really shady business and is just trying to, you know, is trying to make money off of a, you know, off of a a kind of shady market that they’ve cornered, kind of like a drug dealer or maybe somebody who runs like a pornography store or something like that and.
40:12: And and that and that’s typically the that was typically the the men, from kind of an older generation, and that’s maybe 30, that’s maybe 30% of them.
40:21: the vast majority of them though, 6, almost, you know, 60-70% of them, especially the younger Planned Parenthood trained ones, tended to be women, who had a who had a who who typically have a very, you know, very strong ideology and even kind of.
40:41: almost a kind of psychology sort of built around, built around, the, the built around abortion as a, as a value, and, But so, so I don’t, I can’t, I, I, I, I mean, I, I can’t say that I know everything that goes into turning a, you know, a, a, a, a bright-eyed, Quick thinking medical student, you know, into an industrial scale abortion doctor.
41:10: I don’t know, I don’t know everything that’s happened to them that brings them to that position and and that and that convinces them that that they should keep on doing that full time.
41:22: I do know that that a lot of them are very traumatized by it, that, that they have nightmares, they have drinking problems, they have They have they have flashbacks, they have, they, I mean they we plan and this is this is in no way a secret at the end of the day, you know, even the most devoted disciples of abortion practice are having a horrible time doing it.
41:46: , and so, you know, so like, so is, you know, is their faith in abortion greater than our faith in the value of humanity and the justice in protecting people and not killing them when they’re weak and vulnerable?
42:01: No, their faith is not greater than ours and that their faith in that.
42:04: actually very weak, and so that should, that should, you know, that should, that should give people frankly, a lot of courage, and a lot of boldness in standing up and speaking the truth, for the importance of protecting our brothers and sisters in the womb and protecting every every family or even just every, every mother-child relationship from the ravages of the abortion industry.
42:31: Wow, that is really eye opening, and I think it’s really interesting because Planned Parenthood, even right on their website, they use words like compassion.
42:43: They have this image of wanting themselves to seem like they are the hope for women, that women should be looking towards, that women can find the best quality care at a Planned Parenthood area, However, obviously that is not the case.
43:04: And so my question for you is, what would your reaction be to those who still believe that Planned Parenthood is a safe place where vulnerable women can truly be taken care of.
43:16: I, I think that the public really needs to hear the message that, That’s that that that any that regardless of the issue that you are Dealing with, if it’s a, if it’s a, if it’s a challenging or unexpected pregnancy, whatever the level of, of fear or concern or or whatever, you know, what whatever is going on in, in your experience of that, everyone who is going through something like that deserves to, to be treated by a medical professional who will look at them holistically.
43:53: , who will not just look at them as a, as a number for their quotas for the day, as, as some or, or even worse, look at them as a harvesting pod, for products that they can sell down the line afterwards and, and, and even patent and and make royalties off of like they do at some places, I think that, I think that I think that I think that that Planned Parenthood has has has weaponized their position, trying to trying to estab trying to frame themselves as a as a mainstream, compassionate provider of mainstream medical care, when in reality, their late term abortions for body parts business is one of the most extreme things that the vast majority of people would be would be horrified about.
44:53: , you know, one of, I mean, one of the, I know I’m kind of jumping around here, but there’s a lot of, you know, there’s, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of, pieces to, to unpack there, but like one, but one of the things that just, you know, that that that reminds me of is just recently we CMP just recently published a we just recently published a video report from our our ongoing FOIA investigations that are kind of expanding right now.
45:19: We you know we have a lot of different FOIA requests, public records requests out at different.
45:23: Taxpayer funded research centers around the country, and we just published a report a couple of a couple of months ago, before the end, right before the end of the year, about, about Planned Parenthood’s fetal harvesting program in Southern California, at UC San Diego.
45:41: And there’s many, many things wrong about that.
45:44: there’s a, you know, they have a, the whole thing is based on a contract where Planned Parenthood agrees to sell, there’s a direct quote from the contract, proprietary aborted fetuses from Planned Parenthood to the taxpayer funded laboratories at the University of California, and in exchange Planned Parenthood will receive ownership.
46:05: Of any intellectual property or patents that the university laboratories develop using the so-called proprietary aborted babies and experimenting on the so-called proprietary baby body parts that are supplied by Planned Parenthood.
46:18: , and so that, no that’s bad enough.
46:21: OK, so Plan is saying in this contract with the University of California that that they have that they have proprietary ownership over other people’s babies that they’re ripping out and killing and they and but those are those are Planned Parenthood’s proprietary aborted babies that they have a right to own and sell.
46:39: that’s bad enough and it’s a clear violation of federal law, but then on top of that, the documents showed that That when it comes to the consent forms that this big Planned Parenthood mega mega center in Southern California is using for their for their abortion patients to induct them into this harvesting program.
46:59: The English forms for English speaking pregnant women.
47:04: Do disclose that there may be commercialization of of the fetal body parts afterwards if the patient consents to participate in this research program.
47:14: But the Spanish language consent forms that are stamped by the ethics Review Board at UC San Diego and were drafted in participation with the Planned Parenthood clinic and the National Planned Parenthood Research Office, the Spanish language consent forms that are being used for Spanish speaking women only, and this is Southern California, this is San Diego, right on the border, so you’re gonna, you know, they’re they’re gonna have, you’re gonna have a a a significant population of people coming in who are using the Spanish forms.
47:41: Only the Spanish speaking forms take that disclosure out and remove it entirely.
47:46: So if you’re an educated white English speaking woman coming to coming to Planned Parenthood and they ask you to participate in a research study to harvest your baby’s body parts, they will inform you, oh yeah, there might be commercialization of them afterwards.
47:58: But if you are, you know, if you’re an undocumented, if you’re an undocumented immigrant, if you are a Spanish speaking person, if you don’t speak.
48:05: English, they will not give you the same level of disclosure and the same facts about why they want to be able to rip your baby out, and what they’re gonna do with your baby afterwards.
48:17: so that’s and and and and and that and it’s not just like one time that they did that.
48:23: That form was used for 3 or 4 years in a row and might still be the form that they’re using literally to this day.
48:29: The documents that we have go up to to to go as recently as 2020, we’re gonna be asking for for for more recent versions, but so, so that, I mean, so that looks so that’s like that’s the reality, right?
48:43: That’s the reality of this business like an an abortion business is not built around.
48:49: Saying, oh, you know, you’re pregnant and having difficulties with it, here, can we sit down and talk about it and find out what would be best for you and your baby?
48:56: That’s not what they’re built around.
48:57: They’re built around looking at at pregnant women and and and couples who are in a who who are who are experiencing a a a any kind of sudden difficulty in in the fact that they’re that that they’re expecting a baby.
49:15: They are built around.
49:16: , commodifying that and taking advantage of people and some of their most, some of some of some of some of their most vulnerable and emotional and and and and fearful moments, to Make money off of forcing them into a life or death decision that they can never take back.
49:35: , And so I so so I know that’s you asked a kind of simple question and there’s a there’s a there’s a lot going on there, but I mean, but basically like that, that’s the reality of the abortion industry and so and and most people, you know, go figure, most people don’t want to get their medical care from an organization like that if they know the facts.
49:57: , so, you know, if you, you know, and if you need, you know, if, if, if somebody needs, you know, birth control or STD testing or like whatever the case may be, you can go get it from somewhere else.
50:07: You can go get it from a federally qualified health center, you can go get it from, you know, from, from many other places where it’s actually.
50:13: going to be cheaper, and it’s not going to be performed by by by doctors and a so-called medical staff, that are lying to people in their most vulnerable moments about life changing decisions so they can make money off of dead baby parts afterwards.
50:31: Wow, that is a really powerful answer.
50:34: Thank you so much for that, David.
50:36: Now, I’m wondering what, what was Planned Parenthood’s response to you and your team, and you can answer this either broadly speaking, if you would like, or get into specifics.
50:52: You can answer as well in reaction to your University of San Diego investigation or your human capital series, but what, what was the overwhelming response from Planned Parenthood to your investigations?
51:12: So Planned Parenthood was furious when this information started coming out, right?
51:16: And they’ve because because they because they know that if the public knows the truth.
51:24: About how they treat Unborn children, how they treat their their parents, their mothers, their families, and what they do.
51:34: With the aborted babies afterwards, they know that they can’t survive that public scrutiny, that there that the public would would decisively turn against their organization, they’ll lose their federal funding, they’ll be shut down, and, and industrial scale abortion will very quickly become become a thing of the past.
51:51: Planned Parenthood, as a, as an, as an operation cannot withstand the scrutiny.
51:57: , that would come from a full exploration of their participation in the harvesting and sale of aborted babies.
52:05: so Planned Parenthood was furious when this information first came out 10 years ago.
52:10: they reacted viciously, with retaliatory lawfare against myself and my team, you know, that’s almost like a whole, a whole entire another podcast, that we could talk about.
52:22: , but, but they, you know, but, but they’re furious and they, and, and they, they lashed out and reacted very, very viciously on the release of, of more undercover footage, they harnessed the police power of at the time, the Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris, to bring a completely unprecedented.
52:43: , selective prosecution under California’s video recording law that has never been used against an undercover journalist before in its 70 year history and has never been used since.
52:55: Mine was the first and only case, in order to try to, in order to try to seize the remaining videos to cover up the existing ones and try and bury it and pretend like all of this had never happened.
53:06: , And, you know, but it’s very interesting, you know, as, as time has gone on, you know, there’s been major leadership changes at Planned Parenthood, the, you know, some of the officials who were responsible for that early, that original lawfare and weaponization, you know, they’re no longer with the organization.
53:25: They, you know, they they have moved on.
53:27: , I’m still here with Center for Medical Progress.
53:30: We’re still reporting on the latest news about Planned Parenthood’s participation in the harvesting and sale of late term aborted baby body parts.
53:39: and Planned Parenthood, you know, almost 10 years later, has now gone pretty dark and pretty silent, about reacting to any of this stuff because they know that they are under very heavy scrutiny for it.
53:52: They know that the facts are not on their side.
53:54: , and I think they know that they’re, you know, that their time at just being a, a carnival of horrors for killing and selling late term recognizably human babies on an industrial scale across the country, doing it with $700 million in taxpayer funding every year.
54:11: I think they know that their time for that is short and that time is coming to an end.
54:16: so, you know, this is, this is information that they didn’t want out there, they don’t want it out there, but it’s out there now and it’s gonna continue to come out, And they are And they are they they are gonna be facing all the scrutiny that they deserve for it.
54:30: Yeah, that, that is awesome.
54:33: And David, I want to be respectful of of your time, so I’m just gonna ask you just a few more brief questions.
54:39: but I was wondering if you could just broadly speak to us about the victories that you and your team have seen in the courts recently, in particular this week.
54:50: Yeah, so this week, you know, this week is really exciting, because after 9 years of, like I said, really unprecedented lawfare, the state of California, finally entered into an agreement where, where they will be completely dismissing the, the video recording case that was launched by Kamala Harris 9 years ago at the behest of Planned Parenthood, This is this is an agreement that it’s, it’s dropped all of the remaining charges in that case, saved for one, they asked for a, they asked for a simple no contest plea with with no basically which is basically saying like we agree not to not to have a contest with you anymore.
55:35: Nolo contender in Latin means I don’t want to, I don’t want to fight.
55:38: I don’t want to contest.
55:40: And and so in exchange for that, there’s no, you know, there’s no punishment of any kind, no jail time, no, it’s really it’s something that is typically referred to as as diversion in other cases, it’s what they said on the that’s what they said in the courtroom on on Monday.
55:57: , and so in exchange for that, the final charge, will ultimately be, will ultimately be dismissed by operation of law, within 6 to 12 months.
56:08: so it’s really, it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a little bit of a, of a fig leaf for their office, I think.
56:12: I don’t think it’s much of a fig leaf, but, but, it’s really, it’s, you know, it’s really incredible.
56:18: For 9 years that office pursued this case at the behest of Planned Parenthood.
56:24: , because, because Planned Parenthood was so desperate to cover up, the facts of what’s shown on the on the undercover footage, and ultimately 9 years later, they’re walking away with nothing.
56:34: The videos are out there, the public knows, and, you know, President Trump just issued an executive order last week, saying that that there has to be, saying that there that there can no longer be federal taxpayer money.
56:50: Going to organizations that fund or promote elective abortion and Planned Parenthood is is the is the biggest and primary example of that.
57:00: So, so, so it’s so it’s been a, it’s it’s it’s it it this is a this is we’re only halfway through and it’s it’s this is a this is a pretty victorious week already, so it’s really great to have that behind us, and it’s really great to be able to to build to focus fully.
57:15: , on our investigative reporting mission and to continue to report the truth, about, about how the abortion industry is, is hurting families and, and, and killing babies, and, and about the about the the injustices of government sponsored experiments on aborted children.
57:37: , and, and I think that, I think that I think that the truth is, is already starting to win out, and I think we’re gonna, I think we’re gonna have, I think we’re gonna have more really good victories in the future.
57:50: That’s awesome, and we are just so delighted for you, and we are going to be keeping you in our thoughts and in our prayers in these upcoming months, David.
57:59: and just as a closing, closing question, could you tell our listeners what, what your mission is going forward, what your battle cry is now that these charges have been lifted against you?
58:13: Well, I mean, I don’t, I don’t know about a a battle cry, but I think the I think the I think the message is that is that every single human being matters, right?
58:23: I mean, I don’t think that that, I don’t think that message has changed, and I think that that, you know, the, the, the, the, the guiding message for all of my work and The, I think the core value and the core message of of my undercover reporting and CMP’s continuing investigative reporting is that is that human dignity is inviolable.
58:46: Every human being matters, and, and, and, That’s a value that that needs to, the the the foundations of that is when, you know, when is, is when we are at our smallest and our most innocent, right?
59:04: because there’s a, there’s a lot of complaints that you can make about, you know, about an adult person, you know, walking around in the world and there’s lots of people that we upset or, you know, we are sometimes rude or or people have disagreements and, you know, there’s there’s always something.
59:18: That you can criticize or be upset at a, you know, at an adult person for.
59:23: But, but, you know, but when we are, you know, at our smallest and at our youngest, just beginning to enter the human family, just, you know, just, just entering the world, as a tiny baby, as a tiny infant, there’s nothing that anyone at that age has done that’s wrong.
59:39: There’s just a little spark of divinity that’s just suddenly come into the world, and if we can’t value and respect and protect our own humanity.
59:47: , at its purest and most innocent, and most vulnerable, how on earth are we gonna do it like later on, like when things get messier and things get more complicated and more difficult when we’re all out here, you know, walking around in the world making each other upset.
1:00:01: Like, I don’t, I don’t see, I don’t see, I don’t see a way to do that.
1:00:04: I don’t think you can have a functional civilization that doesn’t, that doesn’t, that doesn’t protect.
1:00:10: , it’s, it’s most innocent and most promising.
1:00:14: So, so I think, so I just, I think that’s the message that everybody’s life matters, everybody’s life matters, and, and, And And I just, I think that’s, that is the core universal value that that animates the pro-life movement, that animates our cause, that animates my work, and that is going to, that is going to that is going to bring our civilization to a level greater than ever before.
1:00:47: So, that’s my, that’s my guiding principle.
1:00:50: Wow.
1:00:50: Well, thank you so much.
1:00:51: That is such a beautiful way to close our interview today, and just once again, thank you so much for taking the time out of such a busy season for you, such an exciting season for you, and we, everyone here at Susan B.
1:01:05: Anthony looks forward to continuing to fight alongside you for the unborn, because just as you said, Every single one of those little babies, those sparks of divinity, they have so much value.
1:01:16: And so we look forward to to walking alongside you, David.
1:01:19: Thank you so much for being here.
1:01:22: Thank you.
1:01:23: Have a wonderful day.
1:01:24: You too.
1:01:25: Bye.
SBA Pro-Life America's mission is to end abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders. Your secure gift today will help to advance a culture of life and protect unborn children and their mothers from abortion.
Donate