Media Matters provides the smackdown to the newest video from the anti-abortion group currently attacking Planned Parenthood.

Courtesy of CNN: 

The anti-abortion group that has accused Planned Parenthood of illegally selling organs and tissue from aborted fetuses released a new video Tuesday, a day after the Senate blocked a bill that would have defunded the organization. 

The latest undercover video, which is clearly edited, features operatives for The Center for Medical Progress posing as employees of a fetal tissue procurement company attempting to buy intact fetal organs from a Planned Parenthood branch in Houston. In the clip, Melissa Farrell, director of research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, discusses the relationship between altering abortion procedures to get the most intact organs possible and costs. 

"If we alter our process and we're able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, it's all a matter of line items," she said in the video. 

Farrell, who said in the video that she is responsible for diversifying Planned Parenthood's revenue streams, also said the group works with multiple academics and researchers studying fetuses looking for intact organs -- and sometimes complete cadavers.

As you can imagine such frank talk about harvesting organs from aborted fetuses has further enraged the anti-choice crowd and driven them into a frenzy of letter writing and e-mailing to their local politicians who now feel they have little choice but to at least appear to be making an effort to defund Planned Parenthood.

However the video also makes it appear that the doctors performing the abortions will alter the procedure in order to get a better "sample" for sale later which might place the mother at risk during the procedure.

Here is the press release by the group The Center for Medical Progress who are behind these videos:

The fifth undercover video in the controversy over Planned Parenthood's sale of aborted baby parts shows the Director of Research for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Melissa Farrell, advertising the Texas Planned Parenthood branch's track record of fetal tissue sales, including its ability to deliver fully intact fetuses. 

In the video, actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company meet with Farrell at the abortion-clinic headquarters of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston to discuss a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs. 

"Where we probably have an edge over other organizations, our organization has been doing research for many many years," explains Farrell. When researchers need a specific part from the aborted fetus, Farrell says, "We bake that into our contract, and our protocol, that we follow this, so we deviate from our standard in order to do that." 

Asked specifically if this means Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast can change abortion procedures to supply intact fetal specimens, Farrell affirms, "Some of our doctors in the past have projects and they're collecting the specimens, so they do it in a way that they get the best specimens, so I know it can happen." 

The investigators ask Farrell how she will frame a contract in which they pay a higher price for higher quality fetal body parts, and she replies, "We can work it out in the context of--obviously, the procedure itself is more complicated," suggesting that "without having you cover the procedural cost" and paying for the abortion, the higher specimen price could be framed as "additional time, cost, administrative burden." 

Farrell finally summarizes her affiliate's approach to fetal tissue payments: "If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. It's all just a matter of line items."

However Media Matters has compared the released fifteen minutes of footage and compared it to the full transcript and found some very deceptive edits.

Here are a few of them:

The Center for Medical Progress' full-transcript of their undercover video reveals that the anti-choice organization cut-out portions of Farrell's comments in order to make it appear that the official was suggesting changes to protocol that could endanger a patient. The short video skipped over Farrell explaining that everything done "is there for the safety of the patient" and under "our standard process." 

Not included in the 15-minute version of the video is Farrell's further explanation that the clinic would not alter or delay a procedure for the sake of fetal tissue donation, per Planned Parenthood and tissue donation guidelines. 

The unedited transcript reveals Farrell explaining that any changes to the procedure would need to be cleared by doctors and pose no threat to the patient. 

The full, unedited transcript reveals Farrell's explanation that any reimbursement for the costs incurred by the clinic cover only administrative costs, and would not be calculated on a per-specimen basis.

The problem of course is this now has become a conflict between logic and faith. The folks on the anti-choice side are driven by their faith that God places a child in the mother's womb, and that man has no right to interfere with its birth.

On the pro-choice side is the understanding that reproduction is not the product of divine intervention but rather every day biological interactions between human beings, and that allowing one of those humans to walk away unburdened by the interaction, while forcing the other to take full responsibility for the embryo created by the mingling of sperm and egg, is patently unfair and should not be forced on women simply due to a different reproductive system.

If these people REALLY wanted to reduce the number of abortions in this country, instead of simply controlling women, they would turn their attention to increased education and the increased availability of preventive measures and stop attacking programs that provide very important services for the health of American women.