OXON HILL, Md. — On Thursday, LiveAction spokeswoman Alison Centofante alerted the audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to two sting videos from 2013 showing abortion workers backing infanticide. She described infanticide as the “ethos” of Planned Parenthood.
Given the infanticide comments by Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) and failure of the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in the Senate on Monday, infanticide is a central issue. Centofante recalled that in 2013 LiveAction sent pregnant investigators into abortion clinics to see how staff would respond to questions about babies born alive during attempted abortions.
“They propose the very question that the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was trying to address, which is ‘What would you do if this baby survived the abortion?'” Centofante said.
“And on video, these late-term abortionists say, ‘We’ll make sure they won’t survive.’ ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Don’t worry about it. We will make sure they don’t survive,'” the LiveAction spokeswoman said.
She referenced a second video, where a woman asked, “What if I deliver at home and it’s still breathing?” In that case, “We were told, ‘Put it in a bag. Flush it.'”
“This is the ethos of an organization that gets $500 million in taxpayer funds every year,” Centofante declared. While Planned Parenthood lost its funding under Title X, it still receives plenty of federal funds.
.@AlisonHowardC exposes Planned Parenthood supporting infanticide, telling pregnant mothers that their babies would be killed if born alive. If born at home, the baby should be put in a bag and flushed, the “doctors” said. @LiveAction @CPAC @PJMedia_com #CPAC2019 pic.twitter.com/aYr5CGMeIb
— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 28, 2019
Centofante had referred to two separate sting videos released in 2013. The first video showed Cesare Santangelo, an abortionist in Washington, D.C. The abortionist told the pregnant investigator that if she delivered the baby before they could kill it, “we would not help it.”
“So you would make sure it wouldn’t survive, then?” the investigator asked. “Yeah,” he responded, saying he would not help the baby live.
Dr. Santangelo contrasted his work with that of a hospital in Virginia. “If you were in a hospital in Virginia, let’s say, and you went into labor …. they would do everything possible to help that — that fetus survive,” the abortionist said. “OK, but you won’t?” the investigator asked. “We wouldn’t here. You know, and that’s happened before, to tell you the truth.”
Watch D.C. abortionist Cesare Santangelo tell our undercover investigators that he would make sure babies "do not survive" if they were born alive at his facility.
This must be firmly rejected by our great nation.
The freest, most prosperous nation in the world must do better. pic.twitter.com/yyJcx9yc2a
— Live Action (@LiveAction) February 21, 2019
Liberal outlets like Media Matters and ThinkProgress claimed the video was edited. (Sound familiar? Planned Parenthood said the same thing about the sting videos in 2014, and even Fusion GPS had to admit that the videos weren’t edited.). Santangelo told The Washington Post that he was “tripped up” by “hypothetical” questions about a baby born in a botched abortion. He was merely trying to reassure the girl, the abortionist said. He told The Post that he has never experienced that situation in more than two decades.
“Once the baby is born, it’s out of everybody’s hands, and the baby has rights, too,” Dr. Santangelo said. “I understand that and I support that.”
Last year, the family of Rebecca Cary Charland filed a medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuit against Dr. Santangelo after Charland died in in 2010 after a botched dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion.
The second video Centofante referenced at CPAC involved a pregnant investigator asking what to do if she gave birth at home. “If it comes out … then it comes out. Flush it!” the abortion worker said. “We’ll tell you to put it in a bag or something.”
When the investigator asked, “Don’t call the hospital?” the staffer responded, “No. Call us.”
Watch this New York abortion worker tell our investigator to "flush" the baby down the toilet or "put it in a bag" if she's born alive. pic.twitter.com/iXaVTxWjiS
— Live Action (@LiveAction) February 21, 2019
Planned Parenthood would likely object to Centofante’s description of infanticide as the “ethos” of this organization. Even so, Planned Parenthood’s other services are declining while abortion is increasing.
“We prop up this corrupt, pressuring, failing organization, with our tax dollars,” the LiveAction spokeswoman said. “Their breast cancer screenings are going down, their pap smear tests are going down, their manual breast exams are going down. What’s going up is abortion and our federal funding.”
This funding creates a perverse incentive since Planned Parenthood is a political organization, she argued. Because the abortion group receives taxpayer funding, “their mega-donors in Hollywood then can give their millions to their political action arms, and their political action arms spent $20 million in the midterm elections to send people here to Washington, D.C., to work against us.”
Even those who don’t think abortion is the central political issue of the day should push to defund Planned Parenthood, Centofante argued.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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