Just another day at the Planned Parenthood office: Baby body parts shipped via FedEx

NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) has released a sixth video showing a former employee of StemExpress, a company that procures aborted fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood, describing the efforts of abortion workers to harvest fetal organs for profit – oftentimes without the consent of the mothers involved.

The video, part of CMP's "Human Capital" documentary web series on Planned Parenthood's sales operation, is decidedly less grotesque than a previous video which showed trays of body parts from aborted children. Episode 1, "Planned Parenthood's Black Market in Baby Parts," premiered last month. Episode 2, "Inside the Planned Parenthood Supply Site," was posted Aug. 12.

The new video contains an insider's account of the abortion operation at California Planned Parenthood clinics in general and the Fresno clinic in particular.

Holly O'Donnell, formerly a "blood and tissue procurement technician" for StemExpress, tells of how she was expected to identify patients whose gestational stage made them likely candidates for "donating" specific body parts requested by buyers.

Those body parts were then shipped to buyers via FedEx, O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell said she frequently expressed her personal discomfort with asking women for consent to donate fetal tissue. She was told, however, "It's not an option; it's a demand" (see video and continue story below).

Planned Parenthood workers reportedly told her that she should push to get women to donate fetal tissue because it was financially beneficial to the operation – and to her. The video shows a document outlining her pay of $10 per hour, plus a "tissue bonus structure."

In reality, she said, it mattered very little to clinic workers whether or not they had a patient's consent to donate aborted fetal tissue. According to O'Donnell, the workers secreted the "specimens" away and shipped them for profit.

"If there was a higher gestation, and the technicians needed it, there were times when they would just take what they wanted. And these mothers don't know. And there's no way they would know," O'Donnell said.

According to O'Donnell, Planned Parenthood gave StemExpress workers, including her, access to patient records and schedules so that the harvesting company could plan on arriving at the clinic on the days when patient "supply" would be greatest.

"They give you a sheet, and it's everybody for that day, who's coming in for an ultrasound, who's coming in for an abortion, medical or a late-term abortion," O'Donnell explained in the video. On some occasions, O'Donnell – who claimed to be pro-life – said she told women uncomfortable with the idea of an abortion to "run away." When she did, she was chastised by the abortion workers for failing to capitalize on an opportunity for profit.

"The environment is morbid – like, you can feel it," O'Donnell said. "You can hear ... you can hear screaming; you can hear crying."

She also described the women working at the clinics as "cold."

David Daleiden, who leads the CMP project, said O'Donnell's experiences shows Planned Parenthood is only interested in the sale of human "products" and not real health care for women.

"Taxpayer subsidies to Planned Parenthood's barbaric abortion business should be revoked immediately, and law enforcement and other elected officials must act decisively to determine the full extent of Planned Parenthood's offensive practices and hold them accountable to the law," Daleiden said in a press release.

Planned Parenthood, unlike when previous videos were released, has not issued a statement on the sixth video.

StemExpress, however, did issue a statement later Aug. 12:

"StemExpress unequivocally denies the allegations made by Holly O'Donnell and The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and reaffirms that it has never obtained blood or tissue samples from a patient without first obtaining consent. Ensuring that patients have provided consent for blood or tissue donation to support medical research, education, or treatment is a threshold issue that is non-negotiable for StemExpress."

StemExpress claims the video is "deceptively edited and falsely worded to suggest impropriety or illegality where none exists" and that continued effort "will only serve to slow the pace of life-saving medical research aimed at curing disease and extending quality of life for millions of Americans."