Videos released by the activist group Center for Medical Progress appear to show Planned Parenthood executives discussing the harvesting of foetal body parts, how the procedure can be altered to keep certain organs intact, and discussing pricing for certain specimens and parts.
"For once we can actually take Planned Parenthood at their word, because in these videos they don't use euphemisms, but instead they openly acknowledge the humanity of the babies they have aborted and are now dissecting," said Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
"The importance of this is made particularly stark in a horrifying moment in one of the videos. A technician is exchanging small talk with the interviewer, all the while as she coldly describes her handling of the various organs of one of the aborted babies. She is then heard to exclaim, 'Another boy'.
"The pathos of that scene is almost beyond human comprehension. But the acknowledgement of the truth is a pivotal moment. Nobody can hide from it any longer. It comes right out of their own mouths. It's not a thing. It's not just some tissue. "It's a boy!" It's a human, baby, boy," added the Cardinal.
Commenting on the videos in an op-ed published by the Chicago Tribune, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago also hit out at the organisation, writing: "the widespread revulsion over the tapes arose because they unmasked the fact that, in our public conversation about abortion, we have so muted the humanity of the unborn child that some consider it quite acceptable to speak freely of crushing a child's skull to preserve valuable body parts and to have that discussion over lunch."
"This newest evidence about the disregard for the value of human life also offers the opportunity to reaffirm our commitment as a nation to a consistent ethic of life," he added.
"While commerce in the remains of defenseless children is particularly repulsive, we should be no less appalled by the indifference toward the thousands of people who die daily for lack of decent medical care; who are denied rights by a broken immigration system and by racism; who suffer in hunger, joblessness and want; who pay the price of violence in gun-saturated neighbourhoods; or who are executed by the state in the name of justice."
Planned Parenthood maintains that fetal tissue donated by women who receive abortions is used in complex medical research, including on diseases such as Parkinson's. Often, those tissues are processed by companies such as StemExpress Inc, which then provides the materials to research labs.
