Planned Parenthood video: If media found out we sell aborted babies it ‘would be a disaster’

Sep. 15, 2015 (Newsbusters) - Ironically, Planned Parenthood trembles in the face of its most faithful ally: the traditional  media.

from VOCAL

The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released a tenth investigative video Sept. 15, that showed Planned Parenthood executives discussing aborted baby parts for money as a “valid exchange” for a “fair amount of income.” The Planned Parenthood executives admitted terror and distrust of the media – and worried about becoming a public relations or “P.R. issue” that might make headlines. A worry much unfounded, as MRC studies have found.

The video opened with Dr. Carolyn Westoff, Planned Parenthood’s Senior Medical Advisor, revealing her role in harvesting aborted baby parts to an actor posing as a tissue buyer.

“We’ve just been working with people who want particular tissues, like, you know, they want cardiac, or they want eyes, or they want neural,” she said, “Oh, gonads! Oh my God, gonads. Everything we provide is fresh.”

This isn’t the first time that the subjects of the videos have expressed zeal over the idea of chopping up human babies – like when workers laughed while sorting “5-star” baby parts in the fourth video or when a Planned Parenthood partner joked about shipping baby heads in the eighth video.
In her practice, Westhoff expressed fear of only one thing: the media.

“Obviously, we would have the potential for a huge H— P.R. issue by doing this,” she admitted.
Likewise, Vanessa Cullins, Planned Parenthood’s vice president of External Medical Affairs, “seem[ed] fully aware of the criminal exposure that fetal body parts sales present to Planned Parenthood,” according to CMP.

“This is important,” she said to the buyer in the undercover video. “This could destroy your organization and us, if we don’t time, you know, those conversations correctly.”

Getting straight to the point, Deborah VanDerhei, the National Director for Consortium of Abortion Providers (CAPS), asked the buyer about compensation for aborted baby parts: “Can I ask you about remuneration?”  According to CMP, CAPS is “an influential committee within Planned Parenthood that drives abortion policy across the organization.”

VanDerhei also admitted dread of getting caught by the media.

“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,” she admitted, “because the headlines would be a disaster.”

Because there is not Planned Parenthood national policy, VanDerhei recommended that, for those who want to “engage in remuneration,” “you really need to, like, think that through” as in “think New York Times headline when you’re creating your policy” – a sentiment she expressed more than once in the video.

But the media isn’t enough of a threat to keep her organization from trafficking aborted baby parts. When VanDerhei learned that the buyer offers around $100 per specimen, she remarked, “we have independent colleagues who generate a fair amount of income doing this.”

In regards to Planned Parenthood’s participation in aborted baby parts, VanDerhei recommended talking “in person” on the topic. “It’s an issue you might imagine that we’re not that comfortable talking about on email,” she said.

VanDerhei also appeared in a later conversation with Vanessa Russo, Compliance Program Administrator for Planned Parenthood Keystone in Pennsylvania. Russo told VanDerhei to brush off any fear of the law – and the media.

“We can’t consent to be bullied by ridiculous laws and this media that doesn’t understand the big picture,” Russo demanded before going on to talk about “research.”

Russo also argued that, “A company like this that wants to give our organization money for the tissue, like, I think that that’s a valid exchange, and that that’s okay.” VanDerhei confirmed with an, “Mhm.”

VanDerhei consoled Russo by saying that “there are Planned Parenthoods that participate in donation programs that are reimbursed for it” and adding “it’s fine.”

She listed Northern California, Mar Monte and Los Angeles as clinics that “all provide donation for remuneration.”

CMP’s press release highlighted that, “The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).
The video is part of CMP’s years-long investigative study and documentary web series, “Human Capital,” which delves into Planned Parenthood’s practice of harvesting aborted baby parts.

Media History
Planned Parenthood executives’ fear and disgust of the media is laughable, as the media loyally serve as a PR firm for the abortion giant.

Since the release of CMP’s first video, the broadcast networks have proven hesitant to publicize the story – and when they did, they refused to even utter the word “baby.”

On Monday, MRC Culture found that ABC, NBC and CBS had aired a mere 0.13% of the CMP footage during their news shows – or 1 minute, 13 seconds of more than 16 hours. Likewise, a month ago, MRC Culturediscovered the networks spent an embarrassing 0.008% of their news shows playing the CMP footage: 1 minute, 13 seconds out of 243 hours and 30 minutes.

From the beginning, the liberal media raced to defend Planned Parenthood. In the first 9 hours and 30 minutes of news shows broadcast after the story broke, ABC, NBC and CBS, spent only 39 seconds on the first video. It took more than 24 hours before all three covered the story. In the week after the first video, the networks gave a mere 9 minutes and 11 seconds to the story (in contrast, the nets devoted more than three times that to the Susan G. Komen controversy, when the charity temporarily decided to defund the abortion giant).

ABC, NBC and CBS prioritized animals over aborted babies, covering the shooting of Cecil the lion more in one day than they did these videos in two weeks – as well as the birth of the National Zoo’s panda cubs.

The three networks haven’t mentioned the content of CMP’s last five videos. In fact, the networks haven't covered a single Planned Parenthood video release in more than one month.
Not only that, but also they refused to cover the tens of thousands of Americans speaking out against Planned Parenthood during rallies held in late August – except once, when CBS tried to connect the event to arson.

The media similarly stayed silent on the case of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell's trial, in which witnesses described baby abortion survivors “swimming" in toilets “to get out,” attracted a scant 12–15 reporters. Only after 56 days, multiple letters from members of the House of Representatives and a public outcry, did all three broadcast networks report on Gosnell.

Planned Parenthood History
Planned Parenthood received more than $528 million in taxpayer funding during the fiscal year 2013-2014. That amounted to more than $1.4 million per day, through government grants, contracts and Medicaid reimbursements.

According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the U.S. ranks second in the world for the number of abortions performed each year. The research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List also found that, “If Planned Parenthood were included for comparison, it would rank sixth in the world in number of abortions carried out annually.”

Pro-Life Reaction
As the Project Lead for CMP, David Daleiden commented on the newly released video.
“From email black-outs to contorted oxymorons like ‘donation for remuneration,’” he said in a press release, “the lengths to which Planned Parenthood leadership will go to cover-up their illegal sale of aborted baby parts are nothing less than the desperation of a guilty conscience.”
As the president of Students for Life of America, Kristan Hawkins also challenged the practices of Planned Parenthood in this tenth video.

“Planned Parenthood knew that if it ever got out that they were taking money for the body parts of babies they were aborting, that it would be a 'PR disaster,'” she said in a press release. “That's why they don't have a written on policy on such matters. That's why they don't want it in emails.”
Call for action in Congress, Hawkins added, “Every single Congressman and Senator needs to watch these videos.” She continued, “The time for rhetoric is over; now is the time for leadership and action."

Likewise, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser responded to the “further evidence that Planned Parenthood profits from the illegal harvest and sale of the body parts of aborted children.”

“Senior abortion industry officials feared the New York Times headlines if these facts were to be exposed, and now they have been,” she warned, before calling on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood redirect funds to “more comprehensive health care centers.”

“No one should feel comfortable affixing his or her name to a budget that prolongs this atrocity,” she said. “It is up to President Obama to make clear why he believes our government has no higher priority than guaranteeing that the abortion industry can continue the piecemeal sale of baby body parts –‘fresh’ liver, eyes, brain, gonads, and more – without losing a dime of taxpayer dollars.”
Live Action’s Lila Rose added that the video “shows at what length Planned Parenthood executives will go to cover up the illegal harvesting of and profiting from baby parts.”

“Multiple executives also discuss the public relations nightmare should these illegal practices become public,” she said in a statement. “The nightmare is a reality, and along with continuing its multiple investigations into the abortion giant, Congress should immediately stop funneling over half a billion taxpayer dollars into Planned Parenthood and instead redirect the money to the over 13,000 community health centers that provide comprehensive healthcare to women.”

Source URL: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/culture/katie-yoder/2015/09/15/planned-parenthood-admits-its-terrified-media-5x-new-video

Tenth Video: Top Planned Parenthood Exec: Baby Parts Sales “A Valid Exchange,” Can Make "A Fair Amount of Income”

What do we do if the Synod takes a ‘strange turn’? The simple answer just got Cardinal Burke big applause.

Join Cardinal Burke and 615,000 other concerned Catholics and sign the Filial Appeal to Pope Francis asking him to clearly reaffirm Chruch teaching on marriage at the Synod on the Family. Click here.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, September 15, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- On Sunday, September 13th I had the honor to be one of the hosts for His Eminence, Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, here at a dinner/lecture in the Clayton Plaza hotel ballroom, sponsored by the St. Louis lay apostolate "Credo of the Catholic Laity," to which I am the spiritual adviser.

His Eminence was warmly welcomed and introduced by the retired Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis, the Most Rev. Robert Hermann, and then spoke to an audience of over 300 about "The Truth of Christ in Marriage". He discussed spiritual, social, doctrinal and canonical aspects of the current crisis affecting marriage and the family in Western culture, warning that this crisis has led to serious confusion and even rebellion within the Church herself.

Cardinal Burke emphasized that in our increasingly secularized and hostile culture, more weight than ever is now falling on the shoulders of Catholic parents in giving children a formation, by word and example, in what real Christian marriage is. Along with the Church's authentic and perennial teaching, he said, this sound family formation will prove to be the main source of guidance for children and adolescents, as the basic means by which parents pass on Christian truth in word and deed to the next generation.

Cardinal Burke recommended the well-known 2014 "Five Cardinals'" book, Remaining in the Truth of Christ, and again expressed strong disagreement with Cardinal Walter Kasper's proposal of admitting some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to Holy Communion. His Eminence also noted that certain problems could arise in connection with Pope Francis' new marriage nullity legislation, promulgated on September 8th.

He commented respectfully that these revisions to the Code of Canon Law, which among other things eliminate the required confirmation of nullity decrees by a tribunal of second instance, will require "very careful interpretation and application" in the light of the Church's long canonical and doctrinal tradition. Cardinal Burke referred to his own chapter in the aforesaid book, in which he recalls his earlier experience as a Monsignor in the Apostolic Signatura during the period 1971-1983, when the 2nd instance tribunal confirmation of nullity decrees was almost completely suspended in the United States. Cardinal Burke repeated in his lecture what he said in the book: that the American experiment in “streamlining” the nullity process led in practice to a serious laxity which became widely perceived as "Catholic divorce." It seems this was one reason why the 1983 Code restored the obligatory second instance review (which had been introduced by Benedict XIV back in 1740).

Another point emphasized by Cardinal Burke is that too often today the law of God regarding marriage and chastity is being presented as just an "ideal" - as something which often requires a level of heroic sanctity that is supposedly beyond the capacity of ordinary Christians. This in turn gives rise to false ideas of "mercy" which would allow admission to the sacraments of some Catholics living in sinful situations, on the grounds that it is in effect impossible for them - at least in their present situation - to reach that "ideal"of chastity. His Eminence stressed that, on the contrary, it is the clear teaching of Sacred Scripture and the Church that God's abundant grace will always be sufficient for his children to resist any temptation and to obey his commandments, provided they sincerely turn to him in humility, confident faith and persevering prayer.

After his talk, in answer to a question as to what Catholics should do if the upcoming Synod of Bishops should take a "strange turning," His Eminence gave an immediate two-word answer that drew a big round of applause: "Stay faithful!"  Those two words well summarize the whole thrust of Cardinal Burke's courageous and outspoken witness at this time of division and uncertainty over grave moral issues in today's Church. May God bless, strengthen, and protect him!

Vatican: It’s ‘impossible’ for transsexuals to serve as godparents

MADRID, September 2, 2015 (LifeSiteNews)- After Alex Salinas, a woman living as a man in San Fernando, Spain, claimed her parish priest had allowed her to be the “godfather” for the baptism of her two nephews, local bishop of Cadiz and Ceuta, Don Rafael Zornoza took the matter up with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The response, which strongly affirms Church teaching on the nature of gender, was published yesterday on the diocese’s website.

“On this particular case I inform you of the impossibility of admission,” read the response. 

“Transsexual behavior publicly reveals an opposition to the moral demand of resolving the problem of sexual identity according to the truth of one’s own sex. It is therefore evident that said person does not comply with the requirement of leading a life of faith and to the function of godparent (CIC, can 874 §1,3).”

“This is not seen as discrimination, but merely as the recognition of an objective lack of requirements that by their nature are necessary to take on the ecclesiastic responsibility of being a godparent,” it concluded.

The prelate explained how Pope Francis has confirmed this doctrine on several occasions and quoted his last encyclical Laudato Si: “Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment.”

Bishop Zornoza also quoted Benedict XVI on the “ecology of man,” as “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will.”

“The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father,” continued Zornoza quoting Francis. “Thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology.”

The bishop went on to explain that if parents are unable to find a suitable person to qualify as godparent, the priest can baptize the child without godparents, “which are not necessary to celebrate this sacrament.”

“Words have been attributed [to me] which I have not pronounced,” he noted, referring to the media falsely reporting his approval of Salinas as godfather. He explained he had reached out to the Congregation “due to the complexity and the media relevance this matter has reached, and keeping in mind the possible pastoral consequences of any decision on the matter.”

Local media reported that the baptism, scheduled for this September, has been cancelled, and that Salinas’ sisters will not baptize their children until the bishop changes his mind.

Salinas, who had declared herself to be a “firm believer,” has now claimed to be an “apostate” due to the Church’s rejection, reported Spain’s EFE.

In a petition started by change.org, Salinas wrote she didn’t understand why “the Catholic Church denies me the possibility of being a godfather” if Spanish authorities have already changed her name from Alexandra to Alexander in her official IDs.

The petition falsely celebrated a “victory” after Salinas claimed she was being allowed as godfather.

Mainstream media, which initially reported Salina’s “celebration,” have not yet reported on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s response.

Deaf Sign for Abortion