Planned Parenthood’s organ harvesting scandal is fading fast from media’s focus, even as the pro-life activist group that broke the story continues to release jarring undercover video.
The front pages of top news websites, including Yahoo and the Huffington Post, made no mention Wednesday of the latest video from the Center for Medical Progress. The sixth and latest installment from the group shows a former Planned Parenthood affiliate discussing salvaging fetal organs from unsuspecting mothers.
“If there was a higher gestation and the technicians needed it, there were times they would just take what they wanted and these mothers don’t know and there’s no way they would know,” former Stem Express lab technician Holly O’Donnell said in the video.
O’Donnell said her former Planned Parenthood colleagues were “cold.” She also said one abortionist went through the act “viciously fast.”
“The women I worked for were cold, they didn’t care, they just wanted their money,” she said. “They didn’t care girls were throwing up in a trash can, crying.”
Despite the apparent newsworthiness of her candid remarks, other leading news websites, including CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC News, ignored the O’Donnell tape as well.
Prior to the sixth video’s release, the most-trafficked news websites in the United States, including the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, had already shifted their focus from the organ harvesting scandal to the 2016 presidential race. This continued Wednesday.
Cable and network television also appear to have moved on from reporting on the content of the undercover videos as coverage for the Center for Medical Progress’ videos has died down considerably since news first broke in mid-July, according to data compiled by TV Eyes.
The most-circulated newspapers in the United States made no mention Wednesday morning of the sixth video, but this is understandable as the tape was released after newsrooms had already gone to print.
But it’s unlikely that the papers would have covered the latest footage given that most of them have also moved away from covering the scandal. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times have mirrored online coverage of the scandal in that they’ve dropped their already scant reporting in favor of 2016 election news.
Planned Parenthood and its defenders claim the videos have been “selectively edited.” However, with the release of each new video, the Center for Medical Progress has also made its unedited footage available. The pro-life group also provides complete transcripts for each video.
The first undercover video released by the group shows a Planned Parenthood executive discussing doing a “little bit better than” breaking even for donating salvaged fetal organs.
Another video shows Planned Parenthood affiliates apparently discussing performing partial birth abortion so as to leave certain organs, including hearts and kidneys, intact.
It is illegal to profit from the sale of aborted fetal organs. It is also illegal to perform partial-birth abortions. Planned Parenthood has not responded to questions about its associates appearing to discuss both of these practices.
