Monday, September 7, 2015

Whistleblower Raises More Questions About Planned Parenthood

The Federalist ^ | 9/7/15 | Amy Otto 

Editor’s note: This article contains graphic descriptions of dissecting baby bodies.

The ninth and latest undercover video exposing Planned Parenthood’s fetal parts trafficking features Cate Dyer, the CEO of StemExpress, which until these videos began coming out bought baby parts from Planned Parenthood. Dyer worked as a “procurement technician” for another company that contracts with Planned Parenthood before jumping ship to start her own, competing fetal parts company.
Her own experience dissecting babies for StemExpress as a “procurement technician” led Holly O’Donnell, not to start her own company, but to become a whistleblower. In a recent interview with conservative podcast Splintered Caucus, O’Donnell makes it clear that “this is not political to me. This is just me telling you the truth, giving you my testimony.”
On her first day on the job with StemExpress, O’Donnell passed out when faced with her first dead baby. She says StemExpress managers probably eventually realized she wasn’t the right person for the job because she wasn’t motivated by the financial incentives that were part of her work.
Excited about an opportunity to be gainfully employed after technical training as a phlebotomist, O’Donnell took a job with StemExpress assuming she’d be drawing blood. She soon realized the job was not what she expected. While all of her coworkers were women, she found them to be “some of the coldest people I met.” Holly tried to be motivated by the thought that perhaps her work would result in a cure for AIDS, accepting that “they were doing good” since in California these fetuses would otherwise just be incinerated. Sadly, this was not to be the case.

Pushing Abortions to Get Bonuses

When asked about StemExpress’s incentive system, Holly related that she was paid $15 per hour plus mileage. The more difficult organs to procure, such as hearts and lungs, would net workers a bonus. StemExpress procurement techs were paid based on what they obtained.
Holly observed pressure on Planned Parenthood medical assistants to push abortions, and her StemExpress colleagues would see a 20-week-old dead baby and get excited about the chances of obtaining a thymus, brain, and heart all from one fetus. Holly’s coworkers would get upset when a woman who was further along changed her mind and decided to not get an abortion. Holly feels “if you showed women the aftermath of an abortion…they would change their mind.”
“A lot of them come in, and they are completely happy: ‘Oh, I’m really happy I can get this done, I’m not ready for a child. I’m a hundred percent into this,’” she continued. “And then you see them walk out of the room however long later, and you can just see this look in their eye. A part of them was just ripped from them, and they didn’t know how important it was, and now it’s gone.”

Informed Consent? Not So Much

Part of Holly’s job was to get women to consent to donate part of their abortion to research. Some women found this desirable, while others were disgusted and stormed out of the room. Holly witnessed some coworkers not obtaining pregnant women’s consent before they obtained specimens from them. She also witnessed some coworkers fudging the gestational period of fetuses to meet the day’s demand, doing things like labeling an “eight weeker” as a ten-week gestation to fit the desired request from StemExpress.
Holly also went into detail regarding how consent was executed improperly: “It happened a handful of times when someone needed something. I saw one of my coworkers drawing blood from the patients without telling them they were using it for research.” Holly even witnessed one of the head medical assistants who wasn’t trained to start IVs initiating them. “Things like that would happen all the time.”
Holly also noted in the CFMP video that “the co-workers I had, they would not consent the donors,” she said. “If there was a higher-gestation [baby] and the technicians needed it, there were times where they would just take what they wanted.”

Manipulating Women for Money

When questioned further on this topic on the podcast, she said patients’ consent for donating their babies’ bodies did not always happen after a patient had even been briefed or had decided to have an abortion. “The moment they find out [a patient is] pregnant, they say to go ask them because they might want to get an abortion. Depending on the day, depending on the scheduling, we were to ask. If it was an opportunity, we were to consent every available woman at the clinic…I’m sure quite a handful were not counseled on abortion before I was able to consent them.”
This is problematic for a few reasons. First off, leading with a donation for research conversation before a patient has confirmed she is in fact pursuing an abortion could be seen as an attempt to influence that decision by framing it in a positive light. Planned Parenthood continually says they aren’t pushing a particular procedure, although a major part of their income comes from abortions. Secondly, female patients had not been briefed on the abortion or donation procedure, which makes it hard to say they were in a position to provide consent on a form that was supposed to follow a decision and a counseling session.
Holly said her job included obtaining consent, procuring usable baby organs, and shipping the organs out. This leaves an open question regarding what costs Planned Parenthood incurred, since StemExpress employees do the labor associated with procurement. StemExpress has been caught advertising to clinics the financial benefits of working with them, even though Planned Parenthood continues to insist it does not make money from organ culling, because that’s illegal.

Graphic Descriptions of Abortion Ahead

The last straw for Holly was when she was working in Planned Parenthood’s San Jose facility. Holly had to procure a brain from an intact 20-week-old fetus. To Holly, “It wasn’t a fetus and it was a baby.” She goes into more detail in the seventh released video.
“The moment I see it, I’m just flabbergasted,” O’Donnell said. “This is the most gestated fetus and the closest thing to a baby I’ve seen. [The abortionist] has one of her instruments and she just taps the heart and it starts beating. And I’m sitting here and I’m looking at this fetus and its heart is beating, and I don’t know what to think.”
O’Donnell detailed how the abortionist performed the abortion particularly in order to “procure” the baby’s brain. O’Donnell also described how the abortionist made her harvest the baby’s brain by cutting his face open with scissors.
Holly was so devastated from her time at StemExpress that she ended up in therapy. She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Her therapist was stunned at Holly’s story and noted that she had “never heard of a story like this.” Now we all get to hear her story. Instead of listening, some have taken to shaming Holly. She has already been the subject of a brutal attack from pro-abortion folks at RH Reality Check, who since retracted their hit piece and issued an apology.
Whatever you think regarding abortion, Holly has seen up close what so few of us have, and is resolutely pro-life. It’s worth listening to those who have been on the front lines and can recount experiences like this.
“When the debate started, I raised my hand,” O’Donnell recounted. “And I’m like, ‘I have worked in abortion clinics. I have dissected dead fetuses. I’ve interviewed hundreds of women to why they’re having an abortion, and I don’t agree with it.’”

T-Shirt