WASHINGTON – Congress will investigate Planned Parenthood's practice of selling body parts from aborted babies.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced on Wednesday that he will direct the "relevant committees" to look into the practice.
He also called upon President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell "to denounce, and stop, these gruesome practices."
Boehner said, "“Nothing is more precious than life, especially an unborn child. When anyone diminishes an unborn child, we are all hurt, irreversibly so. When an organization monetizes an unborn child – and with the cavalier attitude portrayed in this horrific video – we must all act."
Republican presidential candidates and other pro-lifers were sickened and outraged after a video was released on Tuesday showing an apparent admission by a Planned Parenthood senior executive that the abortion provider is selling body parts from aborted babies.
Calling it "grotesque and utterly disturbing," GOP candidate Mike Huckabee told WND, "The apparent selling of aborted body parts by Planned Parenthood is just the latest disturbing news out of the abortion industry."
He added, "This underscores my desire to defund Planned Parenthood, as I have pledged to do in my 'Pledge to the People.' The sanctity of every human life, both born and unborn, is a value we must always fight for."
An undercover video released Tuesday showed Planned Parenthood's senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, describing how her organization sells the body parts of aborted unborn children – a felony punishable by imprisonment – and admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to harvest intact body parts.
"The truth of Planned Parenthood's grisly objectives is now confirmed," Michele Bachmann told WND.
"Planned Parenthood's goal has always been about making hundreds of millions of dollars a year off the troubles of young pregnant women," said the retired congresswoman from Minnesota.
"Planned Parenthood makes money on birth control, on youth sex education (which doesn't discourage underage sexual activity), on abortions (as the largest abortion provider in the United States), and now on the illegal trafficking of aborted fetal parts.
"It is time for Congress and state legislatures to wake up, take action and stop taxpayer money from going to this heartless organization responsible, literally for the deaths of millions of unborn Americans," declared Bachmann.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry called the video "a disturbing reminder" of "the organization’s penchant for profiting off the tragedy of a destroyed human life."
GOP presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson tweeted, "Planned Parenthood and their enablers must be stopped from these barbaric practices."
And another GOP candidate, Carly Fiorina responded: "This latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn't about 'choice.' It's about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it's about empowerment."
However, it's unlikely that Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be sounding off any time soon.
She and President Obama are among the top recipients of Planned Parenthood contributions, according to InfluenceExplorer.com.
When Clinton announced her candidacy, Planned Parenthood gave her a warm welcome and a ringing endorsement:
"Hillary Clinton is a strong and steadfast advocate for women's health and rights," Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards said in a statement. "In our nation's history, there has not been a candidate for president with a stronger commitment to women or a clearer record on behalf of women's health and rights. ... Hillary Clinton's record and commitment is in stark contrast to the GOP presidential contenders so far who have records of trying to restrict access to safe and legal abortion, affordable birth control, and women's health care providers like Planned Parenthood."
The Clinton campaign had not returned a WND request for comment at the time of this report.
Meanwhile, conservative blogger and author Lisa De Pasquale tweeted a new motto for Planned Parenthood:
"The parts are a greater sum than the whole."
Call for congressional investigation
On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, as well as a congressional investigation.
"Congress should immediately begin an investigation of Planned Parenthood’s activities regarding the sale and transfer of aborted body parts, including who is obtaining them and what they are being used for," Cruz demanded after the release of an undercover video showing a Planned Parenthood's senior executive describe how her organization sells the body parts of aborted unborn children.
"And it should renew efforts to fully defund Planned Parenthood to ensure that its morally bankrupt business receives not one penny of taxpayer money," added the senator in a statement.
“Today’s news regarding allegations that Planned Parenthood is possibly selling the body parts of the babies it has aborted is sickening," said Cruz. "There is no place for taxpayer funding of organizations that profit from taking away innocent life, much less profiting off the bodies of the lives they have stolen."
In 2014 alone, Planned Parenthood donated $404,907 to House Democrats and $2,823 to House Republicans, according to OpenSecrets.org. The group also donated $181,188 to Senate Democrats.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal also called for an investigation of Planned Parenthood Tuesday and opened a state investigation into the organization.
"Today's video of a Planned Parenthood official discussing the systematic harvesting and trafficking of human body parts is shocking and gruesome," Jindal said in a statement. "This same organization is seeking to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans. I have instructed Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals to conduct an immediate investigation into this alleged evil and illegal activity and to not issue any licenses until this investigation is complete."
He added, "I am also asking the FBI to assist DHH in investigating this alleged criminal activity by this organization."
Funding shelved
A statement from the Family Research Council applauded House Republican leadership for cancelling a vote scheduled Tuesday on H.R. 2722, the Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act.
The group said the measure that "would have poured up to $4,750,000 into the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a major donor to Planned Parenthood, America's largest abortion provider."
In a statement, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, "It is past time for the federal government to stop funding Planned Parenthood, an organization that has provided cover for sex traffickers, engaged in gender targeting, and is known for dirty, bloody clinics.
"Congress must investigate these charges to ensure that unborn babies are not being aborted to harvest their organs and body parts."
"This bill's goals are well-intended, but the results will only fund the nation's largest provider of abortions. There are better ways to fund cancer research that don't involve Planned Parenthood," concluded Perkins.
Facebook blocks video comments
The website Twitchy reported Facebook was blocking posts about the Planned Parenthood video, and published tweets from people whose posts have been banned.
With the mainstream media largely avoiding the story so far, Twitchy said it apparently was not deemed newsworthy, at least, "not according to Facebook."
Federal crime
In the video released by the Center for Medical Progress, Nucatola is at a business lunch with a man and a woman posing as buyers from a human biologics company. As head of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Medical Services division, Nucatola has overseen medical practice at all Planned Parenthood clinics since 2009. She also trains new abortion doctors and performs abortions herself at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles up to 24 weeks, Life News reports.
The commercial trafficking in any kind of human body parts is a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $500,000 fine, or both. Also, partial-birth abortion is a federal felony, punishable by up to two years in prison.
Dr. Deborah Nucatola is a top medical official overseeing abortions with Planned Parenthood.
Nucatola admits on hidden camera that Planned Parenthood charges per-specimen for baby body parts, uses illegal partial-birth abortion procedures to get salable parts, and is aware of their own liability for doing so and takes steps to cover it up.
Nucatola described how abortion procedures are altered not for the safety of women but to get the most marketable body parts, including intact livers, hearts and heads, which are highly sought by those who procure human body tissue for research.
In the video, she speaks in detail about how she meticulously "crushes" above and below the thorax to destroy the baby while leaving its head intact. Nucatola said she "huddles" with her staff in the morning to go over which body parts are requested by buyers and then comes up with a game plan to harvest those organs from the unborn babies that will be aborted that day.
The buyers 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 while casually eating and drinking in what appears to be a restaurant or cafeteria. "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. The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium (the head) is basically the biggest part.
"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."
She goes on to explain to the undercover buyer that "people want lower extremities too, which, that's simple. I mean that's easy. I don't know what they're doing with it. I guess they want muscle."
Too shocking for some to believe
The video has been going viral on social media today.
"Abortionist Deborah 'Hannibal' Nucatola swills her Chianti while talking about selling baby parts," tweeted actress Patricia Heaton.
Others posted that they could not believe the story, that it had to be a "hoax."
But those who follow the abortion industry say they could only wish it were not true. While the cavalier attitude and details coming out of Nucatola's mouth are shocking, they say it's been known for years that this type of grisly merchandising of human body parts was going on inside abortion factories.
"It’s all lining up," said Alveda King, the niece of former civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and head of outreach for Priests for Life. "The dots are actually being connected. Remember my Three Headed Monster Report? There is so much that is hidden. It’s time to tell the truth."
King describes the "Three Headed Monster" as an unholy, diabolical population-control scheme that uses racism, sexual perversion (homosexuality, fornication and adultery) and reproductive genocide in what amounts to a war against God.
The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was one of the earliest proponents of eugenics as a means of reducing the population of blacks and others she considered less desirable.
Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, is calling on Americans and their religious leaders to pay close attention, today and in the coming weeks, to the new evidence that Planned Parenthood is involved in the illegal trafficking of human body parts.
"I have been involved for decades in the effort to expose the evidence that the abortion industry sells the body parts of the babies it kills," Pavone said. "And I welcome this new evidence provided by David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress."
He said the undercover videos and documentation show how people at the highest levels of Planned Parenthood are negotiating the sale of body parts, and adjusting the way they perform abortions so that the organs are more accessible.
Pavone collaborates with Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics, who first exposed the sale of baby body parts some 15 years ago, and with Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, who has exposed many criminal activities that occur in abortion clinics.
"We have on our website, BabyBodyParts.com, the images of some of the order forms that were discovered back then – forms that ask that eyes, livers, brains, legs and other body parts be shipped on wet ice to the researchers who want them," Pavone said.
WND contacted Dr. Deborah Nucatola seeking comment, but she did not immediately respond.
Read the rest of this article at World Net Daily.