Orange County’s Planned Parenthood is Latest Victim of Undercover Video

UPDATE, FEB. 3, 11:50 A.M.: According to Nicole Ramirez, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties:

* This latest video is just more of the same lies to push an extreme political agenda to ban abortion in this country. All of the videos from CMP have been completely discredited.

* Planned Parenthood has never taken any money for tissue that it helps women donate for life-saving medical research. The group behind this smear campaign claims that the Planned Parenthood affiliate takes money from a firm called DaVinci, which is totally false and isn’t even shown on the tape they released.

* The Planned Parenthood staffer in this video is seen being asked some highly unusual questions – and never agreeing to do anything improper. She makes it clear Planned Parenthood takes no money for fetal tissue donation (even though it’s legal to) and she makes it clear that the medical procedures follow all laws and medical standards.

* This extremist group’s claims have totally fallen apart upon closer inspection. Every state that has concluded an investigation into these claims – 12 and counting – has found that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong. A federal judge said in a ruling that the claims are totally baseless. A grand jury in Texas that was convened to look at Planned Parenthood found that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong – but issued felony indictments for the people behind these videos.

Also, see the corrected paragraph in the original post below.

ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 3, 5:04 A.M.: The Weekly has previously reported on the Irvine-based Center for Medical Progress’ undercover gotcha videos against abortion providers in other parts of the country.

But the latest video aimed at inflaming pro-lifers was shot right in the center’s backyard.

The footage starts with a portion of CMP’s first released video, which showed Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s Los Angeles-based senior director of Medical Services, describing the use of an ultrasound-guided procedure to flip the fetus to feet-first position to get intact specimens.

Nucatola adds that Dr. Jennefer Russo, the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties in Orange, is a good person to talk with about the procedure.

The video moves on to claim Da Vinci Biosciences, LLC, and its sister company DV Biologics, LLC in Yorba Linda charge $350 for fetal liver, $500 for fetal thymus and $750 for fetal brain—adding that the sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.

*Corrected paragraph: Cut to an off-screen actor portraying a buyer from a human biologics company asking Russo at what appears to be a dinner meeting if she can supply intact fetuses from abortion procedures. As Russo speaks, the video runs text of her allegedly saying, “We haven’t looked at it in a long time, I’d be happy to look at it again.” The CMP alleges Russo’s affiliate works with DaVinci Biosciences to get intact fetuses. “This is completely false,” counters Nicole Ramirez, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties, in an email to the Weekly. “She never said that we (Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties) provide intact fetuses. This is illegal and we have never, and would never, do that.”

After the actor says he is after fetuses as intact as possible and mentions some providers “facilitate the process” by altering the abortion procedure, Russo is shown answering, “Well, we like to do that too.”

The CMP footage has Russo explaining that due to a nationwide shortage of digoxin, her Planned Parenthood affiliate is not using the chemical to abort fetuses and prevent live births by second-trimester patients. 

Here is the video:

“Although Planned Parenthood’s political and PR cronies work overtime to cover-up the revelations of its illicit baby parts trade, Planned Parenthood’s interstate criminal scheme to harvest and sell aborted baby parts continues without any transparency or accountability,” says David Daleiden, the founder of the Center for Medical Progress, in a statement. “The fact that a community like Orange County, CA, is open for business for baby body parts makes clear the need for law enforcement and elected officials to hold Planned Parenthood accountable.”

The CMP has been turning up the heat as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a landmark abortion business regulation case and politicians across the country face off at the polls.

Officials with Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties could not be reached for comment (see the Update above), but the organization’s national leaders have previously shot back with legal action claiming CMP is chopping up footage to present abortion providers out of context and/or in the worst light.

They also  point out that the videos are made by people misrepresenting themselves and showing phony identification. Those tactics led to Daleiden and an associate being indicted criminally by a grand jury in Texas., a state which has de-funded Planned Parenthood.

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