Report Highlights Inaccuracies in ‘Sting’ Videos Targeting Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Federation of America sent Congressional leaders a letter and report highlighting the inaccuracies in a recent series of “sting” videos by the Center for Medical Progress. (Photo: Mario Tama/ GettyImages)

A new report out today (Aug. 27) offers new insights into the accuracy — or lack thereof — of the undercover “sting” videos released by the antiabortion activist group the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). The highly edited videos purport to “expose” the practices of fetal tissue donation at Planned Parenthood affiliate clinics, as well as the practices of StemExpress, a company that provides biomedical tissue procurement services at the clinics.

The report, conducted by the independent forensics and research firm Fusion GPS, was sent to Congressional leadership by Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards — and coincides with information newly attained by Yahoo Health regarding Holly O’Donnell, a former employee of StemExpress who is in many of the CMP videos.

“A thorough review of these videos in consultation with qualified experts found that they do not present a complete or accurate record of the events they purport to depict,” writes Glenn Simpson, a partner at the research firm Fusion GPS, in the report. Fusion GPS assembled three teams of experts in video forensics, production, and transcription to review five of the secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood staff released by the CMP.

The report was sent to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

Examining Abortion Procedures

The letter to Congress addresses the legality of altering abortion procedures to better ensure the ability to secure fetal organs for tissue donation programs.

In multiple videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, various Planned Parenthood staff members and providers mention the way a fetus can be rotated to present in a breech position — increasing the likelihood of yielding intact organs for donation. Federal regulations dictate that “no substantive alteration in the timing of terminating the pregnancy or of the method used … for the purpose of obtaining the blood and/or tissue” may be done in abortion procedures in which a woman has elected for her fetal tissue to be donated for scientific research. Many opponents of Planned Parenthood — including the CMP — have claimed that Planned Parenthood is in violation of this federal guideline when an abortion is performed so that the fetus is in a breech position.

Related: 5 Troubling Flaws in Texas’s Investigation of Planned Parenthood

In the letter to Congress, PPFA’s Richards notes that Planned Parenthood is in fact in compliance with federal fetal tissue donation regulations. She explains that a doctor may need to make adjustments over the course of an abortion procedure, and “these adjustments are clinical judgments — not a change of method” and are “always intended to achieve the woman’s desired result as safely as possible.”

In virtually 100 percent of cases, there are few opportunities for harm or complications to occur when an abortion procedure is modified so that the fetus presents in a breech position, an obstetrician-gynecologist and fellow of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who is also an abortion provider, tells Yahoo Health. This doctor agreed to speak with Yahoo Health on the condition of anonymity.

“It is likely safer — much safer — if [an abortion is done] to present [in a] breech” position, she says. She adds that abortion providers often “alter” the abortion procedure to ensure a breech position regardless of whether a woman has elected for fetal tissue donation or not, but rather in the name of women’s health and safety. This adjustment, then, isn’t an alteration of procedure, but rather a regularly occurring, safe, legal, and frequently practiced medical judgment, she says.

Distorted Videos

The Fusion GPS report also highlights the way the CMP videos were edited to distort and misrepresent the meetings with Planned Parenthood representatives. Simpson, of Fusion GPS, says his firm found that large sections of tape are missing even from the allegedly “full” versions the group has released.

Furthermore, the transcripts that CMP has provided are “not accurate in significant respects,” says Simpson. Fusion GPS had the publicly available version of the tapes professionally transcribed, and found that the CMP’s version of the transcriptions released to members of the press were “sloppy at best.” He said that the transcripts were “frequently inaccurate and erroneous,” and contained multiple instances of “wishful thinking” with regard to what was actually being said.

Related: Undercover Antiabortion Video Showed Images of Stillborn — Not Aborted — Fetus

Specifically, Simpson said that cuts were frequently made to the video to completely remove contextual conversation and so that the answer to one question would be paired with the answer to another. Also, as previously reported by Yahoo Health, many of the “full” versions of the tapes have jumps in timestamps that are unaccounted for.

The Fusion GPS report also notes that “the manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries unless supplemented by CMP’s original material and forensic authentication that this material is supplied in unaltered form. The videos also lack credibility as journalistic products.”

Separately from the Fusion GPS investigation into the videos, Yahoo Health has learned more information about Holly O’Donnell, the StemExpress procurement technician prominently featured in many of the CMP videos. Her first-person accounts have implied that fetal tissue specimens were frequently collected without consent, a clear violation of federal regulations, and that Planned Parenthood staff encouraged and promoted such disregard for federal regulations. She also claims to have applied for a phlebotomy technician position at StemExpress, but was assigned to a procurement technician position by StemExpress after being unable to find work as a phlebotomist.

However, a family member of O’Donnell’s tells Yahoo Health that O’Donnell explicitly applied to StemExpress for a procurement technician position. This was also previously confirmed to Yahoo Health by a StemExpress representative.

“She was never under the impression that she would be a phlebotomist” for StemExpress, the family member says.

Requests for comment to Holly O’Donnell from Yahoo Health have not been returned.

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