On Monday, August 24, Live Action and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sent a letter to California’s top government officials. The letter described the likely illegal actions of Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, as recorded in the Center for Medical Progress’ seventh video.
The video recorded the testimony of Holly O’Donnell, a StemExpress whistleblower who detailed her experience working for StemExpress in the San Jose Planned Parenthood clinic. O’Donnell was instructed by her supervisor to use scissors to cut open the face of a baby boy to harvest its brain. After an attempted abortion, this baby boy was born alive, as evidenced by his beating heart. Nevertheless, the boy was not provided with the medical care required under law. Instead, he was killed, after being born alive.
Live Action President Lila Rose made this statement:
California’s elected officials have a duty to investigate the illegal and unethical practices of abortion giant Planned Parenthood. We are asking the governor and the legislature to immediately eliminate all state funding to Planned Parenthood in the wake of these horrific videos. The evidence in the videos is clear, and Californians are outraged over Planned Parenthood’s abusive and illegal profiteering from harvesting and selling the body parts of innocent preborn children. We urge the governor and legislative leaders to finally hear the cry of Californians and the American public and put an end to public subsidies that fund this organization and its barbaric practices.
As the letter states:
The Born-Alive Protections Act of 2002 grants equal human rights to any child born alive, at any stage of pregnancy – whether the birth was natural or induced by an attempted abortion. Under federal law, therefore, if the child has a heartbeat – as this baby boy in the San Jose Planned Parenthood clinic depicted in this CMP video did have – he had been born alive, and was entitled to all the protections of the law that any other human person is entitled to receive.
California law specifically requires that a baby born alive after an abortion be given the same medical care a premature baby born at that age would be given. As the letter notes, cutting a baby’s face open with scissors to harvest his brain is never included in the standard of appropriate medical care.
Together with ADF, Live Action is calling on California’s top government officials to take action so that justice is served. Planned Parenthood and StemExpress should be investigated and possibly prosecuted. Due to the recorded admissions of StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer, independent abortion clinics in California should also be investigated. Dyer agreed that StemExpress obtains harvested baby body parts “fifty-fifty” from Planned Parenthood and independent abortion clinics.
Additionally, the letter points out that other companies that buy baby parts and work with Planned Parenthood – such as Novogenix – should be investigated. Novogenix Executive Director, Dr. Ben Van Handel, stated on tape: “There are times when after the procedure is done that the heart actually is still beating.” Living, born babies are legally entitled to protection, not the harvesting of their organs and limbs.
Under California law, if a baby’s heart is beating after an attempted abortion, the baby is legally alive and entitled to basic protections under the law. The letter states that Planned Parenthood, StemExpress, and other organizations are violating the rights of these born babies.
Live Action and ADF assert that Planned Parenthood needs to be immediately defunded, as its barbaric, unethical conduct does not deserve one more cent of taxpayer money – especially since approximately 13,000 health centers stand ready to serve the real healthcare needs of women around the nation.
ADF Senior Counsel Mike Norton pointed out:
No organization that traffics in the hearts, lungs, heads, and livers of unborn babies is entitled to taxpayer dollars. The only thing it’s entitled to is a federal and state investigation. Taxpayer money should fund local community health centers, not a scandal-plagued billion-dollar corporation. Thousands of community health centers can be trusted with our hard-earned money, while Planned Parenthood has proven for decades that it can’t be trusted.
You can read ADF’s press release here. To read the entire letter sent to the California government officials, go here.
