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Center For Medical Progress Secret Planned Parenthood Videos ‘Gruesome’ But Legal, Misrepresents Latest Claim

By Denzel Hammett
Published on: 07:42 PST, Sep 20, 2015

[Warning: content may be disturbing to some readers.]

Despite the gruesome nature of the secret videos of Planned Parenthood harvesting organs and “selling” them on, the practice had been going on for decades and, in fact, is comparable to the consent one gives after an accident in which brain death occurs, but the heart and other organs continue to have the capability to function as normal until they are removed for transplantation or research.

It was reported in a previous Inquisitr article that the 1973 Roe v. Wade “Trimester System,” in which women have the “absolute right” to have an abortion in the first trimester (12 weeks) of pregnancy, is at risk due to a fierce campaign against Planned Parenthood taking place by The Center For Medical Progress.

The Center For Medical Progress, an anti-abortion organization founded by David Daleiden in 2013, founded Biomax Procurement Services, a fake biomedical company, as a cover to enable activists to secretly record Planned Parenthood officials during meetings in which the “purchase” of fetal tissue and organs was discussed in cold terms.

Despite the emotional outcry caused by the video above — and all the other videos purporting to show the “sale” of fetal tissue — the legality of these transactions is not in question, as a mother can consent to donate the fetus to medical science. As Time Magazine reported in July, 2015, fetal tissue research has been vitally important to medical research.

“The National Institutes of Health spent $76 million on fetal research in 2014, and fetal tissue has contributed to vaccines for polio, rubella and chicken pox.”

What has not been discussed is the issue of abortion in its entirety. For example, 89-92 percent of all abortions are done in the first trimester of pregnancy, which contradicts the portrayal of Planned Parenthood as primarily dealing in the abortion of fully-developed fetuses. Moreover, the donation of embryos and fetuses, while gruesome, is not illegal, so long as the donation is not a for-profit enterprise. Costs can be met, and it is these costs being discussed in the video which have been represented — without evidence — as for-profit sales by the anti-abortion lobby.

In fact, the credibility of the Center for Medical Progress — their methods and the authenticity of their videos — is now in question, as the organization is attempting to plead the fifth amendment (the right not to self-incriminate) when asked to hand over evidence that would substantiate their claims that Planned Parenthood is breaking the law.

For example, the most recent video — which is perhaps the most shocking — purports to show a fetus still moving while on a steel basin, but was found out later to be a misrepresentation.

However shocking the above video appears to be, Yahoo! News has recently reported the fetus was not a Planned Parenthood abortion.

“The Center for Medical Progress posted a new link on the video’s YouTube page late Thursday, adding that one of the images was actually of a baby named Walter Fretz, born prematurely at 19 weeks.”

And so, as gruesome and emotive all of this is to people on both sides of the issue, there is as of yet no evidence of wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood and the most recent allegation — that Planned Parenthood had on its table a live, moving fetus, ready to be killed for its organs — is that of a premature birth, which, as tragic as that is to an expectant mother, has nothing to do with the abortion issue.

[Image by Scott Olson / Getty Images]

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