For those who haven’t heard of the latest scandal, Planned Parenthood is being accused of profiting from selling fetal organs. Is selling human organs illegal? Yes. There is a black market that makes thousands of dollars from these sales. Would it be despicable to profit from a woman’s decision to give up her baby? Yes. Is Planned Parenthood actually doing this? Although a group called the Center for Medical Progress has videotaped meetings with the family planning clinic’s directors Dr. Mary Gatter and Dr. Deborah Nucatola to try to suggest that it is, ask some questions before passing judgment.
If Planned Parenthood were making money from the alleged sales, why are the prices so low? In the video with Dr. Nucatola, the Center for Medical Progress claims at 2:38 minutes that each organ would sell for a price between $30 and $100. Again, organs on the black market are sold for much higher amounts. Dr. Gatter notes in the video of her that Planned Parenthood is “not in it for the money,” and that patients donate their fetal tissue to research: they do not sell it to Planned Parenthood. Patients gain nothing from the donation, Dr. Gatter said. Do you really believe that an organization as large as this clinic is would take a few tens and twenties for the organs when others are selling for thousands or hundreds of thousands, or that patients would agree to receiving no money while Dr. Gatter rakes it in? (Patients are making money, you say? Then where are these tissue-factory clients?) The Young Turks’ video points out that Planned Parenthood would have to pay for the shipping and handling of the tissue, especially given that fetal tissue is extremely fragile. What motivation would the clinic have to donate tissue to research if they were continually losing money for doing so? Reimbursement for something you have given to someone else is not a “sale.” The video does not even hint at how many people are willing to donate their fetus’s organs. The idea that Gatter or Nucatola are making a profit is highly questionable.
In “haggling” prices, as the title of the video with Dr. Gatter puts it, doesn’t the seller try to up the price, while the buyer tries to get the goods cheaply? From 2:26 to about 4:00, the poser asks Dr. Gatter what price she would prefer. Dr. Gatter suggests $50, and the poser repeatedly asks for a higher price; Dr. Gatter explains that although obtaining the tissue itself does cost money, Planned Parenthood can’t afford to be perceived as profiting financially from donating tissue. She agrees to $75 and finally $100 as the poser continues to ask for a higher “price.” Why would Dr. Gatter propose that she be paid a high-schooler’s weekly income if she were attempting to make money? She only agrees to greater compensation after the poser goads her into it, as well as accuses her of lowballing and “playing games.” Yes, given that the Center for Medical Progress sent spies to make the video and accuse Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing, it can be inferred that the poser intentionally asked for a higher price to try to expose Dr. Gatter as greedy. The tactic is obvious, and the claim of haggling isn’t supported at all if you take time to watch the interaction critically.
Planned Parenthood knows they are hated for performing abortions, among other services. If they were conducting illegal transactions, why would they do so publicly? Both videos show Drs. Gatter and Nucatola, no doubt recognizable faces for anti-abortion activists, speaking in a restaurant with the people who say in the video description that they are posing as buyers. Furthermore, if they were criminals, the doctors would never risk their reputation and that of Planned Parenthood, as well as exposing themselves to criminal charges, by conducting organ sales for measly income with people whom they had not even investigated. (Which obviously they didn’t, since the posers are, in fact, posers.) Planned Parenthood would need to do major research on the potential customers before even considering selling to them, in order to protect their business and public integrity.
While many are incensed that Planned Parenthood is, according to the Center for Medical Progress, running a supermarket of children’s organs, I have never heard a single outcry against the possibility that the clinic would capitalize on the mothers and families of the aborted fetuses. The evidence in the above videos doesn’t support the alleged organ trade, but if it did, I would speak out for the families who made the personal and often heartbreaking decision to give up their baby. Not every person who chooses an abortion feels that way, but this man and his wife did. I’m not getting into the moral status of a fetus: that’s another conversation. I am talking about the pain experienced by people who wanted to keep their child, but knew that doing so was not the right choice for them or the baby–and if the accusations were true, these parents would have unknowingly given away their child’s tissue to be sold by those they trusted. Denouncers of Planned Parenthood, where is your anger for the parents who were allegedly exploited on “the worst day of their lives”?
If the people who are calling the clinic a den of monsters had stopped to consider the likelihood of what they are claiming, they would understand how implausible the entire scheme is. Such a serious charge should never be made lightly, yet some are already calling for an investigation, while others are pushing to defund the group. Based on two videos totaling less than half an hour of edited and hysteria-surrounded “evidence.” Those demanding punishment for Planned Parenthood, with the videos as a foundation for the charges, are making a joke of both moral and intellectual integrity. Save your outrage for a worthwhile cause.
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