Third graphic Planned Parenthood video released

A new undercover video released by opponents of Planned Parenthood on Tuesday includes graphic depictions of a technician sorting through the tissue collected after an abortion.

The graphic tapes — three released so far — have created a political outcry and calls for defunding Planned Parenthood from GOP presidential contenders, in Congress, and in some states. Congressional panels have also announced investigations into Planned Parenthood practices.


The latest tape also includes footage of a physician in a laboratory talking with an actor posing as a purchaser of tissue samples. “I think the per-item [pricing] works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it,” she said. The group that made the videos, which calls itself the Center for Medical Progress, identified the physician as Dr. Savita Ginde, who is vice president and medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains in Denver.

The video, the third released by the Center for Medical Progress, includes an interview with a woman who says she used to work at Stem Express, in a Planned Parenthood clinic. “I thought I was going to be just drawing blood, not procuring tissue from aborted fetuses,” Holly O’Donnell, the former procurement technician, said in the video.

Planned Parenthood has said that the first two videos released by the Center in recent weeks were highly edited and highly deceptive. The group has said that it has done nothing illegal; it has merely collected tissues to be donated for legitimate medical research only with a patient’s consent.

The women’s heath organization, which this week enlisted a crisis communications firm amid the ongoing scandal, also pushed back aggressively against the latest video. “This video really shows such extremely disturbing violations of patient privacy and dignity,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said on a call with reporters. A new Hart Research survey released by the group showed voters don’t support congressional defunding efforts.

Republican lawmakers have called on HHS and the Justice Department to investigate whether Planned Parenthood has broken federal laws preventing the group from profiting on fetal tissue donation.

The Obama administration’s top health official, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, on Tuesday deferred questions on the investigations to DOJ and suggested her department is not conducting its own review of Planned Parenthood.

“We will support [DOJ] in anything they need or want from us,” she said during an unrelated House hearing. Burwell said she has not seen the undercover videos but has “read articles about them.”

Meanwhile, the Senate in “a matter of days” will vote on legislation to defund the organization, according to Sen. Rand Paul’s campaign. The Kentucky Republican, a 2016 presidential candidate, will make a formal announcement at an anti-abortion rally on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon.

Rachana Pradhan and Daniel Strauss contributed to this report.