A leaked tape recorded by the Center for Medical Progress shows a Michigan abortion clinic owner admitting that she talked to “researchers” during her quest to find ways to dispose of the babies her clinic aborted. Renee Chelian operates the abortion clinic chain, Northland Family Planning Center, which performs abortions up to 24 weeks. She has previously denied under oath that her facility is involved in the harvesting of aborted babies.
But, in a speech given by Chelian at a National Abortion Federation meeting, she jokes about how difficult it has been to dispose of fetal tissue, laughingly suggesting to her audience that the disposal problem belongs to the women who pay her to abort their babies.
Screen grab from the Detroit News 10/26/2015. The News covers the secretly recorded – and disturbing videos – while also advertising for abortion on the same page. Image link here.
Chelian’s speech begins at the end of one video (at 23:24) and continues on the next video – both released to the public by Got News.
“We were really tempted to give the fetus back,” Chelian is heard saying in the audio.
“Um, we thought, we’ll give it to everybody in a gift bag – they can take it home, figure out what to do with it. It’s their pregnancy, and why is this our problem?”
Below is video of what the abortion clinic owner told the NAF audience next:
At approximately 3:49 into the video, you can hear Chelian say, “I talked to the researchers and they said we want your tissue, we don’t want all of your tissue.”
She later states (9:27 ):
“What ever you’re doing now there’s not a research company that will take all of our fetal tissue because they don’t want it all. And…you know this is an issue we are going to have to grapple with.”
Live Action News has previously reported more on the outrageous admissions made by Chelian which you can read about here, here, and here.
However, despite Chelian’s admitted discussion with researchers, she has previously vehemently denied involvement in research. In recorded testimony provided to Live Action News by pro-life activist Lynn Mills, Chelian once called a Michigan Senator a liar after he insinuated her clinic might be involved in fetal tissue harvesting.
Chelian appeared before the State Senate Committee in 2012 to oppose any abortion restrictions in the state. Michigan Senator Rick Jones then grilled the clinic owner over whether there was a lab that would harvest fetal parts at her abortion clinic. He said he was contacted by a witness who told him the abortion clinic had attempted to convince her to give an “anatomical donation.”
“Have you ever suggested to patients or anybody in your office, your clinics suggest to patients, that they could have a late-term abortion and then make an anatomical donation of part of the aborted baby?” Senator Jones asks Chelian.
Chelian then pauses before she finally responds by saying, “No.”
Senator Jones reminds Chelian she could perjure herself if she is not being truthful, stating, “I’d ask you not to perjure yourself. There are witnesses.”
Chelian continues to deny the charges brought up by Senator Jones several more times.
At the time of her testimony, MLive.com reported the exchange:
Jones and Renee Chelian of Northland Family Planning Centers in southeast Michigan got into a testy exchange. Jones asked if the clinic had ever suggested to patients that they could have a “late-term abortion” and then make an “anatomical donation.” Jones asked if the clinic allowed a lab to “harvest parts.” Chelian said “no” in both cases and called Jones a “liar.”
“This would not be the first time an abortion worker has denied that they took part in fetal harvesting in the past,” says Mills.
While Chelian has admitted that her clinics have problems disposing of all the “fetal tissue,” i.e. remains of human preborn children, and that she has talked to researchers, she has denied that her abortion chain has had any involvement in fetal tissue harvesting. While we do not know whether all or some of Chilean’s admissions are true or false, we do know that these undercover videos recorded by the Center for Medical Progress are exposing the attitude, and in some cases, the horrific actions of the abortion industry.
Listen to the audio from the 2012 exchange between Chelian and Senator Jones. A portion of their exchange is transcribed below:
Chelian: Well, first of all, I find you rather insulting.
Jones: Isn’t it true that you have a private lab to show up at your clinic to harvest parts?
Chelian: No! And sir, you are a liar!
Jones: No, I’m simply relating what witnesses have brought in.
Chelian: Well, you know, that is part of the problem with this bill is once again. You have never taken the time to find out the facts because you are 100% wrong. I hope you are embarrassed and you’ll take that back to whoever gave you that information.
…
Jones: So you deny having LabCorp and other groups come to your clinics to collect parts?
Chelian: We use LabCorp when we want and any other lab when we suspect an ectopic pregnancy or a molar pregnancy. I’m not sure since you’re not a medical person that you know what that is and I would be happy to tell you if you would like to know. But those are medical problems that pathologists need to look at abortion tissue for. That is not what you suggested. That is in the continuum of good medical care.
Jones: Well, isn’t it true that they come when the babies are 14 to 24 weeks?
Chelian: It is true that they come when we call them.
Jones: On Thursdays and Saturdays.
Chelian: You know, actually we do abortions more days than that. So you don’t have that right, either. They come…
Jones: Just the late-term ones.
…
Jones: Thank you for your testimony, Renee. I spoke yesterday with a witness who…
Chelian: Well, did you speak ? Did you call me…
Jones: spoke with your clinic and your clinic suggested that …
Chelian: Did you call me? Did you call..
Jones: a late term abortion they should make a …
Chelian: Sir, I suggest
Jones: an anatomical donation.
Chelian: You’re lying. Because…
Jones: No, I’m not. I spoke with …
Chelian: Well then your witness is lying. And if you would have picked up the phone and called me or the person who runs any one of my offices, and actually asked a question, honestly, instead of relying on some right to life flunky, with an agenda, who would lie to you because actually you should feel quite foolish right now. That is a lie. You were given false information and you’re accusing me of something, of doing something, based on your inability to get accurate information. I’m insulted.
Jones: Renee, thank you for your testimony.
Chelian is a former head of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers. She was once called to task after her NCAP group’s executive director admitted that he intentionally misled the media about the numbers of partial birth abortions performed on healthy women.
Ron Fitzsimmons, a spokesperson for NCAP, later said that he “lied through my teeth” when he stated that the late-term abortion procedure was rarely performed, and only on women whose lives were in danger or in the case of the health of the preborn child.
The New York Times reported:
”It [my lie] made me physically ill,” Mr. Fitzsimmons said in an interview. ”I told my wife the next day, ‘I can’t do this again.”’
”The abortion-rights folks know it, the anti-abortion folks know it, and so, probably, does everyone else,” he said in an article in the Medical News, an American Medical Association publication.
