Undercover Work That is Still Bringing Down the Abortion Giant One Decade Later
By Cheryl Sullenger
Wichita, KS — Today, Operation Rescue President Troy Newman celebrates the ten-year anniversary of a ground-breaking undercover project that shook the abortion industry to its core.
On July 14, 2015, the first of a series of undercover videos was released showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing the gruesome details of their program for harvesting organs and tissue from babies aborted at Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide. The tiny livers, hearts, brains, and limbs were then sold to middle-man organ distributors and/or research laboratories around the world.
The investigative exposé was the work of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), a group of pro-life citizen journalists and activists, including Newman. From day one, Newman served as a founding member on the CMP’s board and provided advice and funding to the undercover fact-finding project.
Together, they stunned the world and left America’s largest abortion purveyor in a state of turmoil.
“I am honored to have been a part of this historic investigation, even though it came at great personal cost to those of us involved in revealing the horrific truth about the illicit trade in human aborted baby parts,” said Newman. “Today’s Planned Parenthood organization is vastly different from what it was in 2015. Most of its politically powerful leadership has quit or moved on due to our shining the light of truth on their ghoulish secret side business peddling human flesh. This has left a weaker Planned Parenthood with waning political influence that is now collapsing from within.”
The shocking videos
The series of videos depicted abortionists describing in their own callous words the illegal practice of altering abortion procedures – not for the health of women – but to obtain the most marketable organs that would fetch the highest price.
The sale or purchase of human fetal tissue is a federal felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000 (42 U.S.C. 289g-2).
Operation Rescue released the initial press announcement with a link to the first video showing Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Deborah Nucatola, casually chomping on a salad and sipping wine while discussing the popularity of baby livers, hearts, and heads with middle-man organ procurement companies such as StemExpress (now known as CGT Global).
The second video, released a week later, showed abortionist Mary Gatter, Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, articulating a profit motive in the baby organ harvesting scheme. She was heard haggling over the price for each specimen while indicating she did not want to get “low-balled” by the undercover pro-life journalist posing as a representative of a fictitious organ procurement company.
“But, you know, the money is not important,” she states. “But it has to be big enough that it makes it worthwhile for me. . .It’s been years since I’ve talked about compensation, so let me just figure out what others are getting and if this is in the ballpark, that’s fine. If it’s still low, we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini,” Gatter laughed.
The videos only got worse from there for Planned Parenthood. Subsequent releases showed dishes containing dismembered aborted baby remains with clinic workers pointing out body parts for a prospective buyer. An organ harvesting technician was interviewed. She described how later term babies were born intact – many with their tiny hearts still beating as the desired organs were cut from their chests.
Aftermath
These videos sent Planned Parenthood’s then CEO Cecile Richards into a tailspin. Her attempts to blunt the edge of the sharp condemnation inspired by the video exposés only backfired.
Eventually, Planned Parenthood hired a politically powerful Washington, D.C. crisis management company to persuade the mainstream media to stop covering the story, and enlisted a team of attorneys to sue Newman and the rest of the CMP Board under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in a hostile San Francisco Civil Court. In 2019, the pro-lifers were ordered to pay Planned Parenthood and its attorneys an estimated $17 million, a judgment that still hangs over the heads of Newman and his CMP associates.
Planned Parenthood also hired a company called Fusion GPS to conduct a “forensic analysis” of the CMP videos for the purpose of discrediting them. Fusion GPS turned out to be a political dirty tricks group with no expertise in video analysis. Their findings were completely discredited. Fusion GPS was later involved in producing the fictitious “Russian Dossier” against Donald J. Trump during his first presidential campaign and administration, which has also been debunked.
Meanwhile, criminal charges were filed against two CMP undercover journalists in Texas and California.
In Houston, Texas, Operation Rescue’s investigation into corruption within the Harris County District Attorney’s office helped get a dismissal of all charges against pro-life journalist David Daleiden. Operation Rescue uncovered collusion between the DA’s office and Planned Parenthood that illegally flipped a grand jury that should have been tasked with investigating Planned Parenthood’s baby parts trafficking scheme to one that investigated Daleiden. The District Attorney involved, Devon Anderson, was later defeated for re-election.
In California, Kamala Harris, then the State Attorney General, initiated an investigation into Daleiden and Sandra Merritt related to their undercover investigation after meeting with Planned Parenthood in 2015. Both were criminally charged by Attorney General Xavier Baquera, Harris’s successor. The criminal cases dragged on for nearly a decade.
In January 2025, Daleiden and Merritt accepted plea deals that ensured they would receive no jail time or fines. Merritt’s attorney, Matt Staver, Founder and Chairman of the Liberty Counsel, maintains that Merritt’s prosecution was baseless, and that she did nothing wrong.
Legacy of the undercover investigation
The undercover project was inspired by Newman’s close friend and colleague, the late Mark Crutcher, Founder of Life Dynamics Inc. In 2000, Crutcher was the first to document Planned Parenthood’s grisly trade in aborted baby body parts at a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Kansas City.
Newman sought to build on Crutcher’s work. He emphasized that the goal of the undercover investigation was not simply to document Planned Parenthood’s participation in the illegal trade in human body parts. It was, more importantly, to prompt criminal prosecutions for violations of State and Federal laws and, ultimately, use the evidence to persuade Congress to defund Planned Parenthood.
Ten years later, Newman was informed that findings from the undercover investigation contributed to the inclusion of Planned Parenthood’s complete defunding for at least one year in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. This is already leading to the closure of Planned Parenthood clinics, with as many as 200 predicted to close nationwide due to the cessation of tax-payer money.
In 2016, U.S. House and Senate committees investigated the allegations that Planned Parenthood illegally trafficked aborted baby remains for profit. Both the Senate and House determined there was evidence that Planned Parenthood broke the law and made criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice under pro-abortion President Barack Obama. Unfortunately, no action was taken at that time.
However, consequences for Planned Parenthood’s insatiable greed for taxpayer funding and other shady financial dealings may still come home to roost. In June, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced a new investigation by the House Oversight Committee into Planned Parenthood’s dubious financial practices.
The use of fetal tissue for government research became increasingly controversial after the undercover investigation revealed the immoral nature of procuring, profiting from, and researching with aborted baby tissue.
In 2019, President Donald J. Trump halted the use of fetal tissue in government research. Unfortunately, under the Biden Administration, such experimentation was allowed to continue. However, since President Trump began his second administration, he tapped Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institute of Health, which oversees research using government grants. Dr. Bhattacharya has stated he is “absolutely committed” to ending the use of fetal tissue in government research.
“Our work exposing Planned Parenthood’s exploitation of human aborted baby remains for profit has led to positive results,” said Newman. “It has been quite a ride over the past ten years, and our investigations have continued to yield fruit.”
Today, Planned Parenthood is imploding. The government is crafting laws and policies that respect the lives of babies in the womb. There is a new Department of Justice that will not slam the doors on new criminal referrals from Congress, should their current investigations yield any.
“Despite the successes of the baby parts investigation, I understand we have a long way to go to ensure every innocent prenatal baby is protected by law,” said Newman. “It is good to celebrate our victories, so today, I celebrate. Tomorrow, we get back to work exposing the Abortion Cartel and holding them accountable through every legal means available.”
Watch the ground-breaking CMP videos.
This report may be republished with inclusion of the following acknowledgement: “This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Cheryl Sullenger, is Operation Rescue Sr. Vice President Emeritus.”
