The release of videos, by the Center for Medical Progress, exposing Planned Parenthood’s participation in the trafficking of baby body parts warrants criminal investigation.

The Heritage Foundation summed it up by pointing out three ways in which Planned Parenthood may be violating the law.

First, we must ask:  “Is Planned Parenthood receiving too much money in exchange for the body parts of unborn children?”

Planned Parenthood spokespersons say that any payment the organization receives for fetal tissue is reimbursement for what they do to process and transport it. If the organization receives compensation in excess of actual costs, it’s illegal.

But the videos of conversations with Planned Parenthood officials indicate its desire to maximize revenue, with one doctor taped joking, “I want a Lamborghini.”

The second question the Heritage Foundation asks is: “Do Planned Parenthood affiliate doctors change abortion procedures in order to better collect tissue from aborted children.”

Again, it is illegal to do this and there are lots statements that suggest this is happening in these videos. In the first one, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director for medical services, says of this practice, “So then you’re just kind of cognizant of where you put your graspers . . . and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”

Related to this is another question: “Are some Planned Parenthood affiliates performing illegal partial-birth abortions?” This involves partially delivering the baby either head-first or breach and then killing the child before final delivery. Partial Birth Abortion is illegal in the United States. The law that makes it illegal was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Partial Birth abortion allows the abortionist to deliver an intact body for research. There were several mentions in the videos of Planned Parenthood’s ability to meet these requests and also provide larger parts like the calvarium — or head. Dr. Nucatola told the Center for Medical Progress, that when a baby’s head is requested, some Planned Parenthood doctors turn the baby for a breach presentation providing a better chance that it will not be damaged during the
abortion. Obviously this is dangerous to the mother, and is in violation of the law.

If Planned Parenthood is doing these things, all states and our federal government should stop funding it. The organization famously claims that only 3 percent of its health services are abortion services. Even the Washington Post gave this claim three Pinocchios, saying Planned Parenthood is “misleading” the public and “using meaningless and incomplete comparisons to make their argument.”

Planned Parenthood comes up with this claim by unbundling all of its services except abortion. Planned Parenthood clinics provide things like pap smears, birth control prescriptions, testing for sexually transmitted infections, vaccines for human papilloma virus. Several may be provided in one appointment but they are counted as separate services. Everything associated with the abortion is counted as one service.

Taxpayers should not be made to fund this charade.