NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BNG)—After viewing an undercover video that appears to show a Planned Parenthood official discussing the sale of fetal organs, the Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for public policy concerns said “it is time for the reborn to stand up for the unborn.”
Russell MooreRussell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said in a blog July 14 he was shocked by a video released by The Center for Medical Progress.
The video, which Planned Parenthood maintains was manipulated, shows discussions between Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and actors posing as buyers for a human biologics company about how fetal tissue is harvested and the costs associated with its procurement.
Moore called the video an “atrocity” and said the government should investigate.
Planned Parenthood issued a statement saying some of its centers help women who want to donate aborted tissue to medical research. There is no financial benefit to either the patient or Planned Parenthood, the organization claimed, but sometimes the cost of transporting tissue to research centers is reimbursed, a standard practice in the medical field.
“A well-funded group established for the purpose of damaging Planned Parenthood’s mission and services has promoted a heavily edited, secretly recorded videotape that falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs that support lifesaving scientific research,” said Eric Ferrero, vice president of communications for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“Similar false accusations have been put forth by opponents of abortion services for decades. These groups have been widely discredited and their claims fall apart on closer examination, just as they do in this case.”
Moore termed Planned Parenthood’s response to the video “as chilling as it is unconvincing.”
“The horror of this story should be shocking to the consciences of all Americans,” Moore said in a statement on the ERLC website. “Let’s be clear about what is going on. It is not only that infants, in their mother’s wombs, are deprived of their lives, but also that their corpses are desecrated for profit.
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“This is not only murderous; it is murderous in the most ghoulish way imaginable. Is it not clear at this point that these are not health care providers but pirates and grave robbers of those who have no graves? The Department of Justice and the United States Congress should undertake a thorough investigation of this.”
Call for investigation
Moore wrote Speaker of the House John Boehner calling for an investigation into “profiteering in violence on the part of Planned Parenthood.” He also called on presidential candidates to address the video.
Earlier, the ERLC announced it would join Focus on the Family in an effort to get more evangelicals to participate in the annual March for Life event in the nation’s capital held each January marking the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand.
Billed as “a major pro-life conference,” the Evangelicals for Life event is scheduled Jan. 21-22, 2016, at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill. Scheduled speakers include Moore, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, authors Ron Sider and Eric Metaxas and David Platt, president of the SBC International Mission Board.
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