By Sarah Mac Donald - 18 July, 2015
Independent TD, Mattie McGrath, has expressed shock over the illegal selling of human body parts by an American abortion provider.
The expose shows Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr Deborah Nucatola, describing how the agency sells the body parts of aborted foetuses, and admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to supply intact body parts.
In the video, Dr Nucatola, who thinks she is talking to buyers from a human biologics company buying foetal parts, explains how, when a baby is aborted, ultrasound is used so that certain parts of the body can be crushed and other body parts – eg the liver – are left intact for sale.
The ‘buyers’, who are in fact actors, ask Nucatola, “How much of a difference can that actually make, if you know kind of what’s expected, or what we need?”
“It makes a huge difference,” Nucatola replies. “I’d say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps.”
She adds, “The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium [the head] is basically the biggest part.”
Nucatola explains, “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
“And with the calvarium, in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex,”she continues.
“So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end.”
Using ultrasound guidance to manipulate the foetus from vertex to breech orientation before intact extraction is the hallmark of the illegal.
On Friday, TD Mattie McGrath called on the Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) to issue a statement and disassociate itself from the practices described in the video.
“The video that has emerged in recent day’s highlights some of the more grotesque ethical and legal nightmares associated with the abortion industry,” he said.
“The IFPA, which is a member of Planned Parenthood International, must immediately condemn these actions and make it explicitly clear that it does not support the manipulation of abortion procedures for the purposes of maximising monetary profit by trading in human body parts,” continued Deputy McGrath.
“In light of these extraordinary revelations it is astonishing, put perhaps not surprising to witness the complete absence of condemnation from the likes of Amnesty International Ireland and the Irish Council of Civil Liberties.
“I am also calling on the Minister for Health to immediately clarify the exact position of the IFPA on this issue since it has been on the receiving end of millions in State funding over the last number of years,” he said.
Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said that the Irish media were desperate to ignore this deeply shocking revelation but that the video had already been seen by two million people on You Tube and was spreading fast on social media.
