Washington D.C., Mar 29, 2017 / 03:40 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A new undercover video shows an Arizona abortion clinic doctor saying her facility’s treatment of babies who show “signs of life” after an abortion depended on “who’s in the room.”
Dr. DeShawn Taylor, who runs an abortion and Ob/Gyn clinic in Phoenix, Ariz. and who was formerly the medical director at Planned Parenthood Arizona, was filmed undercover saying that according to Arizona law “if the fetus comes out with any signs of life” at an abortion clinic, “we’re supposed to transport it … to the hospital.”
However, when asked on camera, if at her clinic “is there any standard procedure for verifying signs of life?”, she didn’t answer with a specific procedure, but rather said: “I mean, the key is you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right? Because the thing is the law states that you’re not supposed to do any maneuvers after the fact to try to cause demise so it’s really tricky.”
Arizona law mandates that clinics call emergency services if a fetus survives an abortion or has signs of life such as breathing, heartbeat, “umbilical cord pulsation”, or “definite movement of voluntary muscles.”
Additionally, if an abortion is performed after 20 weeks gestation, there must be “at least one person who is trained in neonatal resuscitation … present in the room” to provide emergency care to a “viable fetus.”
The undercover video was filmed by members of the Center for Medical Progress and is the latest in their Human Capital Project, a series of investigative videos on the fetal tissue trade that first aired in 2015.
David Daleiden, the project lead for Center for Medical Progress, was charged with 15 felonies by California Attorney General Xavier Beccera on Tuesday, related to his work on the undercover videos of conversations with Planned Parenthood and tissue procurement officials.
Beccera is a former Democratic member of Congress. He and former state attorney general Kamala Harris – now a U.S. senator – received thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice groups in their congressional elections, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Members of the Center for Medical Progress, posing as representatives of a tissue procurement company, approached current and former Planned Parenthood officials at a George Tiller Memorial Networking Reception in October of 2014, and secretly taped their conversations.
One of the former officials was Taylor, who worked at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles and was the medical director at Planned Parenthood Arizona before moving to her own abortion and Ob/Gyn practice in Phoenix, where she was at the time of the conversation.
She said her clinic received abortion referrals from Planned Parenthood, and performed an average of 30 abortions per week.
Posing as representatives of BioMax, CMP asked Dr. Taylor how they could collaborate on the transfer of fetal tissue from abortion clinics in the Phoenix area.
When asked about abortion procedures for ensuring intact baby body parts for tissue harvesters, Taylor noted that “part of the issue is, it’s not a matter of how I feel about it coming out intact, but I got to worry about my staff and peoples’ feelings about it coming out looking like a baby.”
She was then asked about using digoxin, a feticide sometimes used to kill the baby before an abortion procedure, which could render the fetal tissue unsuitable for harvesting.
Taylor said, “that really presents an issue because in Arizona, if the fetus comes out with any signs of life, we’re supposed to transport it … to the hospital.” Digoxin, she said, ensures the baby is dead after an abortion procedure.
Taylor was asked if her clinic had a procedure for determining if a baby showed signs of life after an abortion. She replied that “the key is you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right?”
She continued, explaining the law’s requirements as a reason for why she mostly uses digoxin to ensure the baby is dead in an abortion.
“Because the thing is, the law states that you’re not supposed to do any maneuvers after the fact to try to cause demise so it’s really tricky,” she said, adding that “most of the time we do dig[oxin], and it usually works. And then we don’t have to worry about that because Arizona state law says if there’s signs of life, then we’re supposed to transport them. To the hospital.”
“Yeah, it’s a mess, it’s a mess,” she said.
Daleiden accused Taylor of breaking the law.
“This footage shows a longtime Planned Parenthood abortion doctor willing to sell baby parts for profit, use criminal abortion methods to get more intact body parts, and even cover up infanticide. This doctor was trained by Planned Parenthood’s Senior Director of Medical Services, and encouraged by her to participate in the fetal body parts market.”
Taylor clarified in the video that she no longer worked at Planned Parenthood, but had her own clinic.
“Well I used to work for them [Planned Parenthood Arizona], and then I left them, and so they’re still recovering,” she said to laughter, when asked why she sees referrals from Planned Parenthood.
Also in the video, she expressed her concern when a dead baby is delivered intact after an abortion procedure. “Arizona is so conservative, I just don’t even want to send a full fetus to – for cremation, or any of that,” she said.
Taylor also went into graphic detail on obtaining intact body parts from abortion procedures, especially through induction.
She noted that “we’re going to start the procedure before we get to that point” of where the baby’s head comes out with enough dilation. “So it’s really like, in order to get you an intact calvarium, the patient’s really going to have to go into labor,” she added.
“So, ideally, you know the patient would have dilated in the E-phase enough that it’s all just going to come out,” she said.
She joked about going to the gym to better perform more strenuous late-term abortions.
“Research shows that dig[oxin] doesn’t make the procedure easier in someone who is well-trained, but I have to tell you anecdotally, my biceps appreciate when the dig works,” she said of procedures where digoxin kills the baby in an abortion.
“So I remember when I was a fellow and I was training and I was like ‘oh, I have to hit the gym for this … I need to hit the gym,” she said. When asked “at what age does it start getting really difficult?” she responded “at 20 weeks [gestation].”
Pro-lifers were appalled at the revelations in the video.
It “once again lays bare the inhumanity of abortion,” stated Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List.
“The abortionist may laugh as she describes the force needed to dismember a five-month-old unborn child struggling to survive, but even the staff are not immune to the terrible sight of aborted children and babies possibly born alive and left to die.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) argued for a ban on abortions performed after 20 weeks gestation – the late-term abortions described in Taylor’s “gym” comments.
“Science has shown that children as young as 20-weeks-old can feel pain, yet these same children are subjected to horrific abortions, being crushed and dismembered,” he said.
He also insisted on federal legislation protecting infant survivors of abortion.
“Some babies, though miraculously, survive a botched abortion and instead of receiving life-saving care, are left to die on a hospital table. It’s time to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. We cannot be a nation that does this to our children,” he said.
[…]
It is good of course that sanity is being preserved in some places.
What stakes me in that gender madness (read “the denial of the reality”) is how anti-women it is. A group of men will not likely feel endangered by the presence of one or two biological females in their changing rooms/toilets/sports while women, forced to put up with a biological male in women-only spaces, will. This law spits on women – on who a woman is – and especially on those women who are victims of assaults/have a high level of anxiety.
Honestly, I do not know the Western law more misogynistic than this because it is not about who a woman can be i.e. profession restrictions or whatever but about who a woman is i.e. the most basic biology-determined need of women to have female-only spaces and feel safe. It is a level of a body which does not even need a religion to back it up.
Considering that roughly a half of humanity are females, the rights of 50% are thrown away for the sake of satisfying 1% (?) or less.
The sports side of this gets talked about a lot, and it should. It affects a lot of young girls, teens, and young women and puts them in the position of sacrificing either their safety and modesty, or their sport.
The women in prison who are forced to share a cell with a “transgender” convicted rapist don’t have even that option. Nearly 60% have been through sexual violence, while about 80% have been through domestic abuse. Misogyny at its finest. They act like that man’s feelings are more important than that woman’s right to not be raped.
“Mr. President – Bishop Gruss is on line one.”
Thanks to Fr. Pivonka for his clear, measured statement.
Let’s see if other Catholic universities are up to the challenge.
I agree that men and women should not compete against each other in most sports because men have the advantage. Sadly many sports seem to be ignoring the differences between the sexes and admitting all sexes to compete together on teams or against each other in singles sports (e.g., swimming), even though one sex often has a clear physical advantage.
BUT…there is one sport that I think has always been on a good track and hopefully will remain that way!
All my life, my family (Dad and Mom, and eventually husband and daughters) have been fans of and participants in the sport of figure skating. And if you don’t think it’s a real sport, then before reading the rest of this, please head down to your closest ice rink and give it a try. “Nuff said!”
My late husband was an ice dancer, and in one of the last competitions he participated in before he passed away (2020-COVID-R.I.P.), he told me that he was the only straight man in a locker room of 26 other men who identified as something other than “straight.”
And that’s OK. After he died, the largest number of cards and gifts to his memorial were from fellow skaters that had gotten to know him over the years. He always enjoyed being with other skaters and sexuality didn’t matter.
Sexuality truly doesn’t matter in the sport of figure skating. What matters is “Can you skate perfectly (or close to it) during your competitions?”
Straight men or women who have landed huge jumps for years can still bomb at a competition, and so can gay men and women, or anyone with any other sexual identity. It is NOT a kind, forgiving sport! You have one shot at competitions, and that “shot” lasts only a few minutes and then it’s over. No do-overs. No time-outs. No “Stop the Clock” so the physical therapist can massage the muscles. If you bomb, you have to wait until the next competition, often a year later, to try again.
There have been women who can outskate a man in jumps, and there have long been men who skate with more “style” than a woman. Figure Skating skills have nothing to do with sexuality, although the biological men are generally stronger when it comes to over-the head lifts of a partner–but not always! And women are generally more flexible when it comes to ice dancing elements, spins, and other elements that require flexibility–but not always!
Recently the figure skating discipline of synchronized skating has allowed over the head-lifts–and in last year’s world championships, WOMEN LIFTED WOMEN over their heads–and most of these lifts were performed by women of roughly the same weight and height!
Amber Glenn won the U.S. Championships in the 2023-2024 season after years of competing and never winning. Only recently has Ms. Glenn “come out” as pan-sexual/bi-sexual. But everyone in the figure skating world knew. And it didn’t matter–what mattered was how she skated during competitions, and often, she didn’t skate well enough to win. Her sexual orientation had nothing to do with her skating performance during competitions.
Jason Brown is the only male figure skater in the world who does not land quadruple jumps in competition, yet at age 30, he placed 5th at Worlds in 2024. He’s incredibly good at all the other elements and has a style of skating that brings an audience to their feet every time. He’s gay, but…that doesn’t matter. (Everyone loves him–he is kind and mannerly to fans and fellow skaters.) I still remember the first time I ever saw him skate when he was just in middle school–I knew that he would be one of the greatest skaters ever (even though he was wearing a ponytail!).
The sexual orientation of the sport MIGHT have mattered back in the old “6.0” system (although it didn’t seem to matter at the time, as quite a few “gay” skaters won competitions–again, because of their skills, not their sexuality).
But now, the Code of Points system does not allow for political “gimmees.” Figure skaters in all the disciplines of the sport (Men’s and Ladies’ Singles, Pairs, Ice Dance, and Synchronized) earn points for each element completed based on how good the ELEMENT is, and although this system is incomprehensible to the public and to many figure skating fans as well, it is generally much more accurate than the old 6.0 system, in which a “pretty skater” could (and sometimes did) win even if the other skaters landed every jump, spin, and footwork sequence.
It’s a sport, not an “entertainment.” Many people who don’t follow the sport don’t believe that, but for those who train in the sport, it’s the absolute truth. Figure skaters have to pass difficult tests to be promoted to the different levels of competition (Preliminary, Juvenile, Intermediate, Novice, Junior, Senior), and many skaters spend years working on these tests, often failing them several times before passing. Most of the public doesn’t know this. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and often, practiced in the early morning hours because after school and work, public skating and hockey (and sometimes broomball) take over the ice rink.
My daughters were up at 4 a.m. on weekends to practice with their synchronized skating teams from 5:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. During the week, they got to sleep until 5:00 a.m. and were at the ice rink at 6:00 to practice a few hours before school.
One of the reasons why I love the sport of figure skating is that biological men and women still compete in the division that matches their biological sex. Men and women do NOT compete against each other in the Singles events, as the sexes, regardless of the orientation of the skater, possess physical attributes that make certain elements impossible or at best, extremely difficult. There are male skaters (Jason Brown)( who can perform a layback spin with as much flexibility as a woman, but most cannot. And there are women who can perform quadruple jumps–but most cannot, especially in the lower levels of the sport, which skaters must ascend before competing at the Senior level that we see on television.
And many men and women who excel in one aspect of the sport (e.g., jumps, spins, or footwork) do not have the same level of performance in other aspects of the sport (e.g., jumps, spins, footwork) to put together a program that demonstrates mastery of ALL the elements of the sport of figure skating. There’s no such thing in figure skating as a “3-point specialist” or a “pinch hitter.” You do it all, and you do it all well, and sexuality does not matter.
Yes, there are occasional competitions in which men and women compete against each other, but these are mainly “show” events, not real competitions, and they often are done as a fundraising event for a worthy charity. I think it’s highly unlikely that the International Skating Union will be merging the sexes in the competition arena anytime soon. other than in synchronized skating where men and women are on the same teams.
It’s interesting that in the U.S., the sport is often disregarded (or worse) by men–even if they watch the sport (to please their wives, girlfriends, or daughters), they would never participate in it, no way! But in many European and Asian countries, as well as Canada, the sport is just as popular for men as it is for women. It infuriates me and other figure skating families that boys and men who figure skate are often made fun of. Keep in mind that male Olympic figure skaters like Charlie White (U.S.A.) and Kurt Browning (Canada) competed in figure skating AND ice hockey while they were growing up!
I hope that some who read this will take a look at the sport of figure skating, which I think has, so far anyway, handled the sexuality issue fairly well. Basically, sexuality ISN’T an issue in figure skating–the “issue” is, “Can you skate well enough to hit all the elements in your chosen figure skating discipline, and hit them better than anyone else in your competition field?”
By the way, Adult figure skating (all disciplines) is becoming more popular, and U.S. Figure skating sponsors many competitions for adults, so if you’re looking for a sport, consider giving figure skating a try!
The sports side of this gets talked about a lot, and it should. It affects a lot of young girls, teens, and young women and puts them in the position of sacrificing either their safety and modesty, or their sport.
The women in prison who are forced to share a cell with a “transgender” convicted rapist don’t have even that option. Nearly 60% have been through sexual violence, while about 80% have been through domestic abuse. Misogyny at its finest. They act like that man’s feelings are more important than that woman’s right to not be raped.