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Planned Parenthood hit with defamation charge
'Cease and desist' letter in response to 'false and defamatory' comments
Published August 6, 2015 at 8:51pm
In response to the release of an ongoing series of devastating undercover videos revealing Planned Parenthood executives haggling over prices to charge for baby body parts and the best ways of aborting unborn children to preserve the most valuable organs, the beleaguered organization's president has repeatedly lashed out at the pro-life group behind the videos, the Center for Medical Progress.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards has repeatedly alleged that, "The folks behind this, in fact, are part of the most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement that has been behind, you know, the bombing of clinics, the murder of doctors in their homes, and in their – in their churches – that's what actually needs to be – to be looked at."
Now one of CMP's board members, Troy Newman, head of Operation Rescue, has dispatched a cease and desist letter to Richards and Planned Parenthood, demanding a full retraction.
"I cannot stand by while Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards and ABC News air false allegations against me that are now being repeated as fact in numerous news sources," Newman said in a press release.
"I have never condoned violence against abortion providers or businesses and Richards' patently false statements against me must be retracted," he said.
Richards' statements were voiced in the July 26 edition of ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulus," when she accused the Center for Medical Progress of advocating violence, including, "the bombing of clinics" and "the murder of doctors in their homes, and in their churches."
Operation Rescue is a mainstream pro-life organization that engages in "non-violent civil disobedience at abortion facilities," specializing in "documenting and reporting substandard and unlawful practices within the abortion industry."
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The cease and desist letter, prepared by Operation Rescue Chief Counsel Brian Chavez-Ochoa, says "Richards' despicable lie is spreading rapidly."
He cited dozens of online and other news sources that have repeated the unsupported allegation of condoning and encouraging murder and clinic bombing.
A solution, the pro-life organization's attorney said, is to "publish a retraction and a sincere apology," and then "communicate that retraction and sincere apology to ABC News together with a request that ABC News immediately remove Richards' false and defamatory, malicious comment."
"Of course, Richards, PPFA, and PPA will be held responsible for the harm to my client's reputation caused by the media's repetition of Richards' libelous statement," the letter continues.
The letter further stipulates that Newman has never "participated in, planned, assisted, caused, aided or abetted, the murder of anyone, whether a doctor or other person; the bombing of any clinic, whether an abortion facility or other; the murder of Bernard Slepian, MD (referred to by innuendo in Richards' remark regarding doctors murdered in their homes); or the murder of George Tiller, MD (referred to by innuendo in Richards' remark regarding doctors murdered in their churches)."
Richards' comments came in an interview prompted by the release of undercover videos made by CMP that show evidence of Planned Parenthood's involvement in the illegal selling of aborted baby remains. Newman was targeted by Richards because he serves as a board member for the Center for Medical Progress.
"Planned Parenthood is lashing out and trying to deflect from their own appalling and allegedly illegal behavior by attacking me. With ongoing criminal investigations in at least 11 states, Planned Parenthood is desperate to change the subject. I cannot allow Richards to make statements that damage my good name just so she can shift public attention away from what is really going on inside her abortion clinics," said Newman.
WND reported at the time on Richards' rant against pro-life individuals and organizations.
This is patently false, writes Susan Michelle for Live Action News:
"She's alluding to Dr. George Tiller, the late-term abortion doctor who was murdered in church by a man who acted independently. Scott Roeder, who killed Tiller, would call Operation Rescue on the phone (as any member of the public can do), but he was not part of their group. Operation Rescue's Troy Newman, sits on the board of CMP, so the abortion giant is trying to tie CMP to murder."
In fact, as Michelle pointed out, Operation Rescue denounced Roeder, saying:
"Then came Scott Roeder, who acted in frustration borne out of ignorance … He shot and killed Tiller on May 31, 2009, claiming that all legal avenues had been exhausted and that his action was necessary to save the lives of pre-born babies. Nothing could have been further from the truth … Roeder was no hero."
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An old story
WND also has reported that as horrific as the videos appear, they should surprise no one, since such practices have been documented for nearly two decades already.
One price list uncovered by a pro-life organization dated June 1998 shows that the price per specimen from a second trimester abortion is $90 fresh and $130 frozen.
Mark Crutcher, whose Life Dynamics organization was a ground-breaker in investigating the abortion behemoth that gets some $500 million annually from U.S. taxpayers, worked on that investigation.
His group reported back in February 2000 how the baby parts market works: "A baby parts 'wholesaler' enters into a financial agreement with an abortion clinic in which the wholesaler pays a monthly 'site fee' to the clinic. For this payment, the wholesaler is allowed to place a retrieval agent inside the clinic where he or she is given access to the corpses of children killed there and a workspace to harvest their parts."
He continued: "The buyer – usually a researcher working for a medical school, pharmaceutical company, bio-tech company or government agency – supplies the wholesaler with a list of the baby parts wanted. … when such orders are received … they are faxed to the retrieval agent at the clinic who harvests the requested parts and ships them to the buyer."
The documentation was provided at that time to Life Dynamics by a worker who left Comprehensive Health for Women, a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Overland Park, Kansas.
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Among the documents was a "Fee-for-Services" Schedule A, effective June 1998, which outlined a charge of $220 per specimen for first-trimester aspiration abortions and $260 if the baby parts were frozen.
Crutcher's report, citing Planned Parenthood's own paperwork, found that one agent sold during February 1996 alone 47 livers, 11 liver fragments, seven brains, 21 eyes, eight thymuses, 23 legs, 14 pancreases, 14 lungs, six arms and one kidney-adrenal gland.
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He also sold three orders of blood from the unborn child. The retrieval agent "harvested all of the parts," the report said, explaining that "in order for the blood of an aborted child to be sold, the dead baby had to be brought to him intact."
The "specimens," the report said, would have generated up to about $25,000 in revenue for one month from one retrieval agent at one Planned Parenthood business.
Crutcher reported that the tissue logs reveal that one baby is often chopped up and sold to many buyers.
For example, babies taken from donors 113968 and 114189 were both killed late in their second trimester and cut into nine pieces. By applying the price list, buyers would have been invoiced between $3,510 and $5,070 for these parts, he said.
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