FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2017
Contact: Mallory Quigley, [email protected], 202-223-8073
SBA List: Continued Taxpayer Funding of Planned Parenthood is Unconscionable – Congress Must Act Urgently to Redirect Funds via Reconciliation
Washington, D.C. – Today the pro-life Center for Medical Progress released a new video consisting of previously unreleased footage showing a former high-level Planned Parenthood employee graphically describing the harvesting of babies’ organs in late-term abortions and possible infanticide of babies born alive.
The national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) condemned Planned Parenthood’s callousness and called on Congress to immediately enact a new reconciliation bill that redirects taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood to community health care centers.
“The latest video from the Center for Medical Progress once again lays bare the inhumanity of abortion and Planned Parenthood’s disregard for the law,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “The abortionist may laugh as she describes the force needed to dismember a five-month-old unborn child struggling to survive, but even the staff are not immune to the terrible sight of aborted children and babies possibly born alive and left to die. At Planned Parenthood, these precious children are valued for the profit their organs can bring, but not their lives.
“We have seen enough. Congress has already referred Planned Parenthood and its associates for criminal investigation. For the abortion giant to continue receiving more than $500 million in taxpayer funding is simply unconscionable. Legislators must act immediately to redirect those funds to community health centers, which outnumber Planned Parenthood facilities by more than 20 to one nationwide and offer a full range of primary health care. As Speaker Ryan said yesterday, the best way to accomplish this is through reconciliation. We urge Republicans to unite and get this done before Members leave town for their spring break.”
In the video, Dr. DeShawn Taylor, formerly Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of Arizona and longtime abortion provider at Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles, is shown chatting with undercover journalists posing as fetal tissue buyers a networking reception at a Planned Parenthood conference. She is introduced by Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, who was seen discussing the harvesting and per-specimen pricing of fetal hearts, lungs, livers, and brains in CMP’s first video, released in July 2015. Taylor indicates she was trained by Nucatola.
Describing the facility’s procedures for handling babies born alive, Taylor states her only consideration is the staff’s “feelings about it coming out looking like a baby” and that to determine whether to follow state law requiring medical intervention for these babies, “You need to pay attention to who’s in the room.” When discussing late-term abortions at 20 to 24 weeks, she also tells investigators that it “takes more force” to dismember a baby that has not first been killed by injecting digoxin and “my biceps appreciate” when the heart-stopping drug works.
Planned Parenthood performs more than 323,000 abortions per year and has done nearly one million abortions in the last three years, making it the nation’s largest abortion chain. President Donald Trump has made four specific commitments to the pro-life movement, including redirecting Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to Federally Qualified Health Centers and Rural Health centers and signing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act into law.
The proposal to redirect taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood would result in a $422 million increase in federal funding for community health care centers, which enjoy strong bipartisan support, avoid provision or promotion of abortion, and now serve nearly 24.3 million people (and climbing) in medically underserved communities across the United States.
A January 2017 poll found that a majority or plurality of voters in 2018 Senate battleground states oppose giving tax dollars to Planned Parenthood instead of comprehensive healthcare providers. A majority in North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Florida also said they would be less likely to vote for Senators who support sending tax dollars to the abortion giant rather than community health centers.
