The following are remarks from U.S.  Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) during floor debate of HR 3495, the Women’s Health and Public Safety Act: 
 
              Mr. Speaker, last week Pope Francis admonished a joint session of Congress to follow the Golden Rule—to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”—and said that the Golden Rule compels us to “protect and defend human life at every stage of development,” and that “it is wrong to remain silent and look the other way.”   At the White House welcoming ceremony earlier in the day, President Obama spoke of protecting the “least of these” taken from Matthew’s Gospel chapter 25. 

              Yet every day, Planned Parenthood dismembers or chemically poisons to death approximately 900 unborn babies—the “least of these”— and hurts many women in the process.

              Subsidized by half a billion taxpayer dollars annually, Planned Parenthood kills a baby every two minutes—and has terminated the lives of over seven million infants since 1973—a staggering  loss of children that equates with twice the number of every man, woman and child living in the state of Connecticut. 

              So I rise in strong support of HR 3495—the Women’s Health and Public Safety Act—authored by our distinguished colleague Sean Duffy to give states the authority to defund Planned Parenthood.

              States should have the freedom to choose who they subsidize and why.  But the President has denied that option to at least six states including Texas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas—the latter three states moved to defund in the wake of the recent undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP).  

            Now, because of the CMP videos, we know Planned Parenthood is also trafficking in baby body parts—turning babies into human guinea pigs while making the abortion industry even richer. 

              Although much of the media continues to ignore this scandal, Planned Parenthood’s meticulously crafted façade of care and compassion has been shattered.  Caught on tape, Planned Parenthood’s top leadership—not interns or lower level employees—show callous disregard for children’s lives while gleefully calculating the financial gain.

             Which begs the question: do Americans understand the violence done to children in Planned Parenthood clinics?  Have congressional colleagues—has President Obama, who says we must care for the “least of these”—watched the videos yet?

             In one clip, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Senior Director of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Medical Services and a late term abortionist herself says on camera: “We have been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, I am not going to crush that part.  I am going to basically crush below, I am going to crush above, and I am going to see if I can get it all intact…I would say a lot of people want liver; and for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they will know where they are putting their forceps.”

           In other words, crush the baby to death, but do it in a way that preserves organs and body parts for sale.

           Planned Parenthood Medical Directors’ Council President Dr. Mary Gatter appears on a video nonchalantly talking about utilizing a “less crunchy” abortion method—again to preserve baby body parts.  Regarding the price tag for baby body parts she says:  “let me just figure out what others are getting, and if this is in the ballpark, then its fine, if it’s still low, then we can bump it up.  I want a Lamborghini.” 

           Planned Parenthood’s National Director for the Consortium of Abortion Providers Deborah VanDerhei says “we’re just trying to figure out as an industry…how we’re going to manage remuneration because the headlines would be a disaster.”  Concern for making money and avoiding bad press—no concern whatsoever for the child victim.

         Holly O’Donnell, a former tissue procurement technician for StemExpress, a biotech company that partnered with Planned Parenthood says some women undergoing abortions did not give consent: “...there were times when they would just take (the body parts) what they wanted.  And these mothers didn’t know.” On the video, Ms. O’Donnell says:  “Pregnancy tests are potential pregnancies, therefore potential specimens.  So it’s just taking advantage of the opportunities.”

          O’Donnell also tells how her supervisor told her to cut through the face of a baby in order to get brain tissue.  “She gave me the scissors and told me that I had to cut down the middle of the face.  I can’t even describe what that feels like” she says.

          I suspect that if the President watches at least one of the videos, he’d at least demand real answers concerning Planned Parenthood’s inhumane behavior and violence directed at the “least of these”.   Or at least I hope he would.

          Mr. Speaker, the videos have again brought into sharp focus the fact that some babies actually survive abortion.

           Dr. Savita Ginde, Vice President and Medical Director of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains confesses that “Sometimes, we get – if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure then they (the baby) are in intact… .” A fetal tissue broker describes watching a “fetus…just fell out.”

          It just fell out. It, the baby, fell out, she says. And then what happened to that baby?

          Tragically, we know what happens to these victimized babies—they are killed and some have their organs stolen.

          The Women’s Public Health and Safety Act gives states the choice to protect the “least of these.”