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On 14 July 2015, The Center for Medical Progress posted a video purportedly showing a leading Planned Parenthood doctor, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, admitting to a pair of actors pretending to be buyers from a human biologics company that Planned Parenthood sells organs from aborted fetuses: The Center for Medical Progress claimed that the video was part of a three-year investigation into Planned Parenthood's practice of selling aborted fetus parts and captured a conversation that took place in July 2014 in which Dr. Nucatola discussed how organs were preserved during the abortion process with an eye towards later sale: It's unclear why the video was held for over a year before it was released, and it has some curious aspects to it. For starters, it opens with a news report and footage of Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt condemning inappropriate behavior, presented in a manner that made Feldt's statement seem like she was commenting on the current issue even though the quote was actually more than a decade old. When Planned Parenthood faced similar accusations in 2003, Feldt, who was president of the organization from 1996 to 2005 (and not at any time during the alleged three-year investigation referenced here), appeared on the ABC show 20/20 to discuss alleged abuses by private sector tissue and organ procurement companies: In addition to the above-displayed video, the Center for Medical Progress also released what they claimed was an unedited version of the conversation (which other sources maintain was in fact edited). Despite the fact that this video is more than two hours long, it contains very little in the way of specifics about exactly what the Planned Parenthood representative is actually offering or selling: For instance, the smoking gun of the original video occurs at the 12:24:00 mark when Nucatola states a price of $30 to $100, but it's unclear exactly what she is talking about. In the unedited version, Nucatola adds a little clarification: It has to do with space issues, are you sending someone there who is doing everything, or is their staff, what exactly are they going to do, is there shipping involved or are you coming to pick it up. Although it is unlawful to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce, it is legal for patients to donate extracted material for medical research. It's possible that Nucatola is merely outlining the costs (e.g., labor, shipping) of that process, which allows reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue. In a press release issued in response to the video, Planned Parenthood asserted that this was the case: The Center For Medical Progress issued a response to the above-displayed press release, claiming that Planned Parenthood does profit off the use of aborted fetuses despite the group's denial: The StemExpress brochure does include a quote from Planned Parenthood Medical Director Dr. Dorothy Furgerson as well as words related to finance, although it does not exclusively reference the sale of fetal tissue. It mentions, for example, cell rich blood and raw materials that are usually discarded during obstetrical procedures, which includes blood drawn or collected from pregnant women (useful in medical research because it contains cell-free fetal DNA). As reported by The Hill, Planned Parenthood released a second statement about the video in which the organization noted that affiliates can legally receive reimbursement for expenses related to tissue donation procedures: The controversy prompted questions about the nature of the Center for Medical Progress, which describes itself as a group of citizen journalists dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances. The organization's Twitter and Facebook accounts are both just a few months old, and the only videos found on the group's YouTube page are the two shown above, even though the organization has supposedly been engaged in a three-year long investigation. The group's web site also initially presented nothing more than standard stem cell research-related articles from mid-2013 onwards, until it suddenly switched to its current investigative form. An individual named David Daleiden has been widely credited as the leader of the Center for Medical Progress. While Daleiden's online footprint is minimal, a 2009 Claremont University article (penned by fellow conservative activist Chuck Johnson) reported: O'Keefe came to prominence in 2009 after he produced egregiously misleading and severely edited videos targeting agencies such as ACORN:
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