The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has released yet another nauseating video discussing abortion providers at Planned Parenthood (PP) actually performing late-term abortions, breaking the 2003 federal law that banned them. This, combined with the multiple investigations showing Planned Parenthood receives federal funding it does not need, should be more than enough to defund the organization—rather than just placing them under investigation again—thereby hitting them where it hurts most.

In the latest video, Dr. Suzie Prabhakaran, Vice President of Medical Affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, told CMP investigators posing as fetal organ tissue buyers from a biotech company that abortionists skirt the federal partial birth abortion law via a “checkbox.”

CMP’s press release reveals, “According to Prabhakaran, Planned Parenthood abortion doctors can certify compliance with the law by using a feticide like digoxin to kill the fetus before the abortion, or they can simply “document” their “intent” to do a “dismemberment” abortion where the fetus is pulled apart with forceps rather than extracted intact.”

Planned Parenthood Admits to Illegal Abortions

The rub with utilizing digoxin is that PP providers have found then the baby’s vital organs cannot be harvested. To get around this, Prabhakaran admits in the video, “So some people train to just document that like, you know to comply with the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, you basically have to say, ‘I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure.’ So every time you do a procedure, that’s how you document. So, like, there’s like a checkbox. So it would be before the procedure, you do your evaluation, you write, ‘I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure.’” In a press release David Daleiden, CMP’s project lead, said,

“Planned Parenthood medical directors and abortion doctors feign compliance with the federal partial-birth abortion law on paper, knowing full well that ‘what ultimately happens doesn’t matter’ so long as no one is scrutinizing what they actually do to women and children in the operating room. And the fact that Planned Parenthood has a ‘dismemberment’ ‘checkbox’ on their abortion forms should tell the public and policymakers everything they need to know about this barbaric abortion business.”

While some media outlets discount CMP’s videos every time one is released, claiming they are doctored or edited to suit a pro-life bend, that’s been proven false in at least two separate investigations.

More Investigations Into Planned Parenthood Are Fruitless

One of the points PP prides itself on—whether via its CEO Cecile Richards on last year’s DNC stage, or its talking points on Twitter—is its claim that everything they do is safe and legal.

While this latest video isn’t a smoking gun—it doesn’t show a partial-birth abortion taking place—the intent and actions are clear. It would be difficult to explain away these comments, they’re so blatantly skirting around federal partial-birth abortion laws. Basically PP has sometimes been feigning legal abortions, then actually doing partial-birth abortions so that they can harvest organs for profit. These two illegal activities—and the fact that the House Oversight Committee found they don’t even need federal funding—demonstrate a clear case for defunding PP if ever there was one.

A couple years ago, propelled by the onslaught of CMP videos which uncovered particularly ghoulish abortion practices, including illegally harvesting baby parts for profit, the House Oversight Committee found PP did not need taxpayer money to operate. Since then, even with conservatives like Congressman Paul Ryan spearheading the idea, Congress has been unable to defund the organization. Yet that’s precisely what it needs—to be stripped bare of its lavish eight-course taxpayer-subsidized meal, in the amount of $500 million per year. If it must subsist on the measly crumbs of other donations, so be it.

We Need To Take Away Taxpayer Funds, Stat

In a National Review Online piece last week, the author said defunding PP wasn’t enough: key players need to be placed under criminal investigation as well. While it’s clear breaking federal law should warrant a criminal investigation, the videos don’t provide enough burden of proof. Nor am I convinced, given PP has been under other serious investigations, a criminal inquiry would be successful or motivate PP to suddenly become a law-abiding organization. However, the videos, when combined with the evidence gathered over the last few years, are enough to finally take what PP values most—taxpayer dollars.

Republicans have tried to do this before and failed. But they simply need to start thinking like Democrats to accomplish this goal. Remember toward the end of 2016, Republicans finally found their chutzpah and snuck in language that would have defunded PP in a bill which also approved funds for Zika aid? It was a brilliant, strategic move. But Democrats are no dummies and they simply balked and refused to cave until Republicans went ahead, removed the language defunding PP, and passed the Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act.

Republicans tried to make sure there wasn’t funding for Planned Parenthood through certain avenues (the Social Services Block Grant) which is obvious in this report via the Congressional Research Service. Had that provision remained, Planned Parenthood may still have received some funding, they may not have. So Democrats blocked a bill that would have provided emergency funding regarding Zika in June and early September of that year because there was language in the bill to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money to help “combat the mosquito-borne disease.”

This Should Not Be So Hard for Republicans

Like Smeagol with the One Ring, it was so important for Democrats that this provision be removed, they were willing to stall and filibuster bills providing Zika aid to keep their Precious intact. They’re dedicated; give them that. Republicans need to demonstrate the same dedication.

Now that Republicans have a majority in Congress and a President batting for their team, it’s time to get brave, stack the deck, and pull the trigger, to mix analogies. Forget defunding Planned Parenthood via Obamacare—since when would do Democrats do that? (See example above for proof.) What good is living in a “House of Cards” kind of town if Republicans don’t actually take some lessons from their opposing team and just stick to their guns for once?

Whether Planned Parenthood “needs” federal funds or not at this point doesn’t matter: They’re breaking the law while aborting the most defenseless among us. It’s time our Republican-controlled Congress and Republican Commander-in-Chief stop helping them once and for all.