PLANNED PARENTHOOD: A NEW YORK TIMES FRAUDITORIAL

Today\’s lead editorial in the New York Times is a strident, even desperate, defense of Planned Parenthood\’s apparent cottage industry of selling organs for profit.

Why do I call it a “frauditorial”?   I can show you with two excerpts.

One is from the editorial itself — here are its first two paragraphs:

A hidden-camera video released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses. It shows nothing of the sort. But it is the latest in a series of unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood, which offers health care services to millions of people every year. The politicians howling to defund Planned Parenthood care nothing about the truth here, being perfectly willing to undermine women\’s reproductive rights any way they can.

The nine-minute video clip released by the Center for Medical Progress, an outfit apparently created in 2013, invites viewers to “Hold Planned Parenthood accountable for their illegal sale of baby parts.” In it, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood\’s senior director of medical services, is seen discussing the collection of fetal tissue in a lunch meeting with two people posing as potential tissue buyers. A second video, released on Tuesday, shows another Planned Parenthood staff member discussing fetal tissue.

Got that?  An angry accusation claiming the charge that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses is false.

Uh….did you notice that this accusation is made before The Times mentions there is a second video…which is described only as showing “another Planned Parenthood staff member discussing fetal tissue”?

Let\’s start with the fact that this “staff member” – a term most people would take to mean an inconsequential worker – is Dr. Mary Gatter – the Medical Director at Planned Parenthood\’s Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley facilities.  

Why do you suppose The Times would deliberately try to throw readers off by dramatically downplaying who is on this video? 

Here is your answer, via Steven Ertelt\’s article at lifenews.com (yes, it\’s a “pro-life” web site….because mainstream media – the Times very much included – are in full suppress mode). 

Let\’s look at a transcript of part of Ms. Gatter\’s discussion with the person she believes to be a buyer of baby parts:

Actors posing as buyers ask Gatter, “What would you expect for intact [fetal] tissue?”

“Well, why don\’t you start by telling me what you\’re used to paying!” Gatter replies.

Gatter continues: “You know, in negotiations whoever throws out the figure first is at a loss, right?” She explains, “I just don\’t want to lowball,” before suggesting, “$75 a specimen.”

Gatter twice recites Planned Parenthood messaging on fetal tissue collection, “We\’re not in it for the money,” and “The money is not the important thing,” but she immediately qualifies each statement with, respectively, “But what were you thinking of?” and, “But it has to be big enough that it\’s worthwhile for me.”

Gatter also admits that in prior fetal tissue deals, Planned Parenthood received payment in spite of incurring no cost: “It was logistically very easy for us, we didn\’t have to do anything. So there was compensation for this.” She accepts a higher price of $100 per specimen understanding that it will be only for high-quality fetal organs: “Now, this is for tissue that you actually take, not just tissue that someone volunteers and you can\’t find anything, right?”

By the lunch\’s end, Gatter suggests $100 per specimen is not enough and concludes, “Let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, then it\’s fine, if it\’s still low, then we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini.”

Doubt the conversation took place this way?  Then watch the video below to see for yourself…

…or if that\’s not good enough, feel free to use the Times\’ own link – to the entire, uncut video – which is in the second paragraph above.  In fact, let me make it easier and post the Times link again, right here.  I want you to be 100% sure that what you just read is accurate.

Now that you know this conversation took place as described, I have a question:  if Planned Parenthood asks only for the costs associated with removing, securely “packaging” and transporting intact body organs, why is Dr. Gatter negotiating the cost?  Wouldn\’t it simply be whatever the cost comes out, each time body organs are sold? 

Wouldn\’t Dr. Gatter be telling the buyers that “in accordance with federal laws, we will give you a price that covers our costs but does not generate a profit – no haggling, that\’s the price”? 

The exchange you just read and/or saw on the video, proves, at least to my satisfaction, that the price for baby parts is not what it costs Planned Parenthood.  The price is whatever Planned Parenthood can get – which is in violation of federal law:

The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).  

And if that is not enough, the video also has Dr. Gatter telling us that she is perfectly willing to break protocol by ignoring the agreement between Planned Parenthood and the pregnant woman to use suction, and, instead, extracting the baby\’s parts using IPAS (an aspirator) – which would increase the odds of getting intact organs.  She refers to this ignoring of the agreement as nothing more than “a little bit of a problem”. 

Are you surprised to note that the Times editorial ignores Dr. Gatter\’s indifference to the protocol, just as it ignores the fact that there was a clear negotiation over the price of body parts?

That is why I call what the Times published today a frauditorial.

Any questions?