Yesterday, October 9th, the fourth congressional hearing on Planned Parenthood was held, titled “Planned Parenthood Exposed: Examining Abortion Procedures and Medical Ethics at the Nation’s Largest Abortion Provider.”
Congressman Robert Goodlatte, in his opening statement, made clear the objective of the hearing, saying,
“Today’s hearing is about the content contained within the videos, including admissions made by Planned Parenthood officials that raise serious questions about the treatment of our nation’s children who may be born alive following a failed abortion.”
He also said that the hearing was intended to explore how abortionists have interpreted the law and manipulated their procedures to circumvent it.
Here are the highlights from the hearing that followed:
Dr. Anthony Levatino is an obstetrician gynecologist and a former abortionist. In his expert testimony before Congress, he gave a graphic account of the brutality of a second trimester D&E (dismemberment and evacuation) abortion procedure. Please be aware of the extremely graphic nature of the following description. He later stated,
“Every abortion involves the destruction of a human life. You know what that baby is? That’s your son. That’s your daughter. Every abortion results in a dead son or daughter.”
Next, Ms. Susan Thayer testified before Congress, relating to her experience working as a center manager for a Planned Parenthood clinic in Iowa. During her testimony, she told Congress the following:
- The Iowa clinic, like most other rural Planned Parenthood facilities, rarely, if ever, had any medical professionals or nurse practitioners present.
- Non-medical staff with minimal training performed transvaginal ultrasounds and were told to treat them like “video-games.” The clinic also performed “web-cam” abortions since professionals were rarely present.
- She filed a federal False Claims Lawsuit against Planned Parenthood in 2008, accusing Planned Parenthood of $28 million in false claims with Iowa’s Medicaid program for (1) illegally dispensing unnecessary quantities of contraceptives and without prescriptions; (2) fraudulently billing Iowa Medicaid for abortion services; and (3) pressuring Medicaid patients into “donations.”
- The FDA limits the use of Mifeprex – the abortion inducing drug – to 49 days gestation. However, Planned Parenthood administers this drug up to 70 days gestation.
- Planned Parenthood has received $765 million in excess revenue over the last 10 years.
Ms. Thayer closed her testimony with the statement,
“I started working at Planned Parenthood believing that I could serve young women and make their lives better. Over nearly two decades inside Planned Parenthood, I learned that was a lie. Planned Parenthood is more concerned about its bottom line than it is about the health and safety of women.”
Ms. Launa Stoltenburg, a woman hurt by abortion, also testified before Congress. She told the story of how she went to Planned Parenthood and had three separate abortions, which left her physically, mentally, and emotionally wounded.
She relates that before her first abortion, she told the Planned Parenthood staffer that she knew it was a baby, and she wasn’t sure if she was doing the right thing. The staffer quickly told her it was just a “blob of tissue,” and it would be easier to abort, then carry to term.
Later in life, when Ms. Stoltenburg was ready to start a family, her doctor told her the abortion procedures had permanently damaged her fallopian tubes, she would have to undergo a hysterectomy, and she would never have children again. Ms. Stoltenburg told Congress,
“I was angry that they [Planned Parenthood] didn’t give me all the facts and let me make the “choice” for myself. I thought they were ‘pro-choice’ and cared for women. I didn’t feel cared for, I only felt abused and used.”
Representing a list of women hurt physically and psychologically by Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry, Ms. Stoltenburg ended her testimony stating,
“All of us who have been hurt by abortion are being made to pay Planned Parenthood with our tax dollars. It is like being forced to pay you’re abuser over and over again. We pay everyday through our regret. Abortion is NOT healthcare it is the killing of an unborn child.”
Hence, from the recent hearings, there is but one conclusion to be made: the abortion procedures and medical ethics of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, are not beneficial, but harmful to our country’s women and children.