The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack posted the background documents that Planned Parenthood’s public relations firm sent to reporters regarding the organization’s human organ harvesting programs. Those programs came to light when Dr. Deborah Nucatola was videotaped discussing them over a glass of wine while munching on a salad during a meeting with actors posing as buyers of aborted baby parts.

Reader Justin Camblin noticed something very interesting from one of the documents:

The edited video, the full video and the transcript of the video all show Nucatola naming a price of “$30 to $100” for “specimens.”

Because the explicit sale of human tissue or body parts is prohibited by federal law, those professionals who traffic in such sales work very hard to arrange them in such a way as to portray the program as donor-based. So abortion clinics “donate” the body parts. Those seeking abortions must consent to “donating” the body parts of their children. In return, clinics are paid fees related to the “donation” of the body parts. These can be site fees for rental of space where harvesting technicians obtain the items needed from their menus of requested body parts. Purchasers and sellers of the body parts claim, then, that they are just transferring money as reimbursement for associated costs.

She’s clearly talking about how much each Planned Parenthood facility might offer aborted baby parts for to companies that purchase aborted baby parts.

Here’s the relevant portion of the transcript, which follows the actor asking Nucatola for help with introductions to abortion facilities where they can purchase aborted baby parts:

PP: Yeah, you know, I don’t think it’s a reservations issue so much as a perception issue, because I think every provider has had patients who want to donate their tissue, and they absolutely want to accommodate them. They just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as, ‘This clinic is selling tissue, this clinic is making money off of this.’ I know in the Planned Parenthood world they’re very very sensitive to that. And before an affiliate is gonna do that, they need to, obviously, they’re not—some might do it for free—but they want to come to a number that doesn’t look like they’re making money. They want to come to a number that looks like it is a reasonable number for the effort that is allotted on their part. I think with private providers, private clinics, they’ll have much less of a problem with that.



Buyer: Okay, so, when you are, or the affiliate is determining what that monetary—so that it doesn’t create, raising a question of this is what it’s

about, this is the main—what price range, would you—?



PP: You know, I would throw a number out, I would say it’s probably anywhere from $30 to $100 [per specimen], depending on the facility and what’s involved. It just has to do with space issues, are you sending someone there who’s going to be doing everything, is there shipping involved, is somebody gonna have to take it out. You know, I think everybody just wants, it’s really just about if anyone were ever to ask them, “What do you do for this $60? How can you justify that? Or are you basically just doing something completely egregious, that you should be doing for free.” So it just needs to be justifiable. And, look, we have 67 affiliates. They all have different practice environments, different staff, and so that number—

The Center for Medical Progress also posted a flyer it claims was distributed to Planned Parenthood clinics that promises “financial profits” from the “raw materials” that are “usually discarded during obstetrical procedures.”

And yet in the backgrounder provided by Planned Parenthood’s public relations firm, they claim:

Inaccuracy: edited video accuses provider of selling “fetal parts.”



Rather than speculating about the cost of selling “fetal parts” as written in the Washington Times the transcript indicates that Deborah Nucatela was speculating on the range of reimbursement that patients can receive after stating they wish to donate any tissue after a procedure.

“… the range of reimbursement that patients can receive after stating they wish to donate any tissue after a procedure”? Come again?

The transcript and videos are clear that Nucatola is discussing how much money to sell aborted baby parts for. But in this backgrounder, Planned Parenthood is claiming the discussion was actually about how abortion clinics pay mothers $30 to $100 per abortion if they donate the body of their child. That’s certainly an interesting claim. Journalists should ask them to explain more about this payment program, as well as what the total payment they receive from purchasing companies for the bodies of aborted children. If they claim they’re paying mothers $30 to $100 for the bodies of their aborted babies, how much more than that are they claiming to sell the bodies for since, as they state, there are many “additional expenses related [to] tissue donation“?

Planned Parenthood’s public relations firm Camino Public Relations was unable at press time to respond to questions about the program and was unable to give a time frame for when they would be able to respond. This story will be updated when they do.