Gruesome video reveals how a lab technician was recruited to draw blood; next thing she knew she was handling the limbs of an aborted baby
PLACERVILLE, Calif. (Christian Examiner) -- A new undercover video of Planned Parenthood includes an interview with a former employee of one of the organization's partners, who says she fainted her first day on the job when she was told to handle unborn baby parts, including a fetal leg.
The interview with Holly O'Donnell – who formerly worked as a procurement technician at StemExpress – also includes more charges that Planned Parenthood makes money by selling fetal organs and tissue to StemExpress. StemExpress is not an affiliate of Planned Parenthood but works closely with the organization.
"They partner with Planned Parenthood and they get part of the money," O'Donnell said.
Unlike the interviews in recent videos, O'Donnell knew she was on camera. "... The more valuable the tissue, the more money you get."
For example, "if you can somehow procure a heart or a brain, you're going to get more money than just" from harvesting an umbilical cord.
StemExpress pays Planned Parenthood for the fetal parts, although Planned Parenthood maintains it is not profiting from the exchange.
It's the third undercover video from the Center for Medical Progress, which has promised as many as 12 total videos over the next few weeks. This video, though, is labeled the "first episode" in a new documentary web series. It's called "Episode 1: Planned Parenthood's Black Market In Baby Parts," and includes a warning: "Some viewers may find this content disturbing."
O'Donnell is a licensed phlebotomist – a person who draws blood – and was looking for a job when she found StemExpress. She had no idea what the company did.
"I basically just went on Craig's List, typed in 'phlebotomist,' 'lab technician,' and clicked a link to a site that said 'procurement technician.' I went to the website. It said StemExpress," she said. "... I thought I was just going to be just drawing blood – not procuring tissue from aborted fetuses."
The job interview included no hint, either.
"They don't even let you know what you're [going to be] doing," the young woman said.
That changed when, on the first day at her new job, a job trainer put on gloves, picked up a pair of tweezers, and began showing her specimen in a lab tray.
"She's like, 'OK, this is the head, this is the arm, this is a leg,'" O'Donnell said.
The job trainer then asked, "Could you show me some of the parts I just showed you?"
O'Donnell took the tweezers and gently picked up the fetal leg – and then blacked out.
"I woke up in a recovery room. I was really embarrassed," she said. "Who faints at their first job? ... "The nurses said, 'You're new, huh?' I said, 'Yes.' They said, 'Don't worry. It still happens to a bunch of us.'"
"Some of us don't ever get over it," one worker told her.
O'Donnell said she drove home thinking, "What have I gotten myself into?"
That ghastly scene, with body parts minus the fainting, repeated itself for six months until O'Donnell left her job.
"We were asked to procure certain tissues: brain, liver, pancreas, heart, lung – pretty much anything on the fetus. It's basically a huge trafficking of fetal tissues," she said.
The documentary shows unborn babies aborted at nearly 12 weeks in a lab dish, along with "intact" kidneys. Eyes and fingers can be seen on the tiny babies.
The new video also includes a disturbing scene where Savita Ginde, vice president and medical director for Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, is told in a lab that "three or four samples" could be taken out of a fetus at nearly 12 weeks.
"Excellent!" she exclaims.
When she is told by a buyer that he'd rather pay Planned Parenthood for each organ or sample instead of paying the organization one sum for an entire fetus, she seems pleased.
"I think a per-item thing works a little better, just because we can see how much we can get out of it," she said.
The next episode could be released next week and will be titled, "Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site."