Full video of the House Judiciary Committee Hearing (4:48)
By Cheryl Sullenger
Washington, DC — On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee convened a hearing to investigate allegations that Planned Parenthood may be engaged in criminal activity related to the selling of aborted baby remains, altering abortion procedures to ensure sellable organs, and intentionally killing babies born alive during abortions in order to harvest their organs. These allegations were brought by evidence presented in a series of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress.
The question of whether or not Planned Parenthood is committing murder – by far the most serious charge – has been generally obscured by the public focus on whether or not Planned Parenthood is profiting from the sale of aborted baby parts and on Planned Parenthood’s dubious “analysis” that has given abortion supporters the ammo they desired to question the veracity of the videos.
The murder allegations really boil down to a tale of four babies.
The first baby was a little boy born at a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in San Jose, California. We learned about him during one of those CMP videos at the heart of Wednesday’s hearing. In that video, Holly O’Donnell described her experience at Planned Parenthood while in the employment of the biologics firm StemExpress. He was born during a second trimester abortion and brought to the pathology lab so his organs could be harvested. But there was a problem, at least for Ms. O’Donnell. The baby boy’s heart was still beating. Nevertheless, O’Donnell was ordered to cut open the baby’s face and harvest his brain.
The second baby, known to us as Baby A or the Abrams Baby, may have played no part in the hearing, but is important to consider nonetheless. His mother wound up in a run-down abortion clinic in a poor urban neighborhood of West Philadelphia operated by a then little-known abortionist named Kermit Gosnell. The mother was given an abortion, but her son was born alive and moving. One of Gosnell’s employees later told authorities that Gosnell cut the baby’s neck, but the baby continued to struggle until he finally died. Later, Gosnell joked, “This baby is big enough to walk me to the bus stop.”
The third and fourth babies were also born during abortions, one in Sioux City, Iowa, and the other in Los Angeles, California. Just like the two previous babies, they survived their abortions and were born alive with tiny hearts beating in their chests. However, their stories ended much differently than the first two. Thankfully, caring people rescued these tiny baby girls, who survived to be adopted and raised into adulthood.
Jessen-Ohden
Those abortion survivors, Gianna Jessen and Melissa Ohden, offered testimony before the House Judiciary Committee that was convened to investigate Planned Parenthood’s alleged illegal selling of aborted baby remains, and spoke emotionally about how glad they are that they survived and have been able to experience the gift of life.
“I have long believed that if my birthmother’s abortion would have taken place at a Planned Parenthood, I would not be here today,” stated Ohden. “Completing over 300,000 abortions a year provides them with the experience to make sure that ‘failures’ like me don’t happen.”
It was Jessen who asked perhaps the most important question of the day. After describing the abortion she survived and the impact it has had on her life and health, she asked, “If abortion is about women’s rights, then what were mine?”
The significance of what happened to the four babies should not be ignored.
A baby born alive is protected by law, yet it is the dirty secret of the abortion cartel that when living babies are born at abortion clinics, they are either intentionally killed or left to die.
When authorities in Philadelphia discovered Kermit Gosnell’s “House of Horrors” abortion clinic, he was rightfully convicted of three counts of first degree murder for killing Baby A and two others, and is currently serving life in prison.
Yet, Jessen and Ohden testified that had they been killed instead of rescued after having been born alive during abortions, they would have simply become another abortion statistic just like the baby born with a beating heart at the Planned Parenthood clinic in San Jose. They would have received no justice.
O’Donnell’s recorded statements along with other admissions of Planned Parenthood executives as revealed by the CMP videos only bolster the case for murder.
When David Daleiden, the project lead for the Center for Medical Progress was asked by Fox News anchor Shannon Bream if he was accusing Planned Parenthood of murder, his answer was unequivocal.
“Absolutely!”
The House Judiciary Committee’s goal is to determine if Planned Parenthood is breaking the law in order to defund the abortion giant of the half-billion of Federal tax dollars it receives annually. But if defunding Planned Parenthood is the focus, we miss the point of the CMP videos. Those at Planned Parenthood responsible for the killing of living babies birthed during abortions must be prosecuted for murder or else we own Kermit Gosnell an apology. Planned Parenthood must not be held above the law, especially when it comes to the heinous crime of murder.
Read Gianna Jessen’s Testimony
Read Melissa Ohden’s Testimony