David Daleiden says his investigators at the pro-life Center for Medical Progress were able to gain access to top Planned Parenthood officials by using “the magic words.”
“It was definitely surprising to myself and to some of the other investigators on the team that when our investigators basically said two things to Planned Parenthood representatives — number one, you know, ’We love abortion, we think what you do is great, thank you,’ and number two, ’We want to harvest your baby parts and sell them, and pay you money in exchange for that,’ ” he said.
“Those two statements were like the magic words that got us in the door,” Mr. Daleiden said.
His comments came as part of Friday’s Fox News one-hour report titled “Planned Parenthood: The Hidden Harvest,” which examined the center’s undercover videos exposing the “small industry” emerging from the procurement and sale of fetal tissue from abortions.
Planned Parenthood officials declined to be interviewed on air by Fox News, but they have described the nine videos released since July 14 as “deceptively edited” and part of a “smear campaign” to discredit the organization, which depends on federal and state funding for about half of its annual $1.2 billion budget.
The report, which aired Friday, comes days before the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold Wednesday the first congressional hearing stemming from the explosive videos.
Planned Parenthood officials have staunchly denied profiting from the procurement of aborted fetal tissue, insisting the organization’s affiliates have only been reimbursed for costs, which is legal.
In the Fox News report, however, Princeton professor Robert George says that those involved may have figured out how to work around the federal law banning the sale of fetal tissue for “valuable consideration.”
“A lot of people have become concerned that people have found end runs around the ’no sale of fetal tissue and body parts’ aspect of the law,” Mr. George said. “They charge or overcharge for producing body parts, shipping and handling, managing the body parts, and so forth. This has become selling while pretending not to sell.”
Pro-life advocates say the videos also suggest that Planned Parenthood may have violated federal law by altering its abortion procedures to procure fetal tissue and participating in partial-birth abortions.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards denied any wrongdoing last week in a letter to Congress, adding that only two of the organization’s 59 affiliates currently participate in fetal-tissue donation for medical research.
Meanwhile, two ranking House Democrats last week called for their committees either to suspend their investigations of Planned Parenthood or also investigate the center over whether any laws were broken in their undercover probe.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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