The videos released by the anti-abortion group, The Center for Medical Progress, which display Planned Parenthood selling tissue and organs of aborted fetuses for profit, reportedly includes "manipulated" footage,
according to The New York Times.
"A thorough review of these videos in consultation with qualified experts found that they do not present a complete or accurate record of the events they purport to depict," said an analysis of a private research company.
The Times reports that the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, gave congressional leaders and the House Energy and Commerce Committee the analysis on Thursday to underscore the inaccuracy of the videos.
The analysis was conducted by Fusion GPS, a Washington-based research and corporate intelligence company.
To determine the undercover videos' accuracy, Fusion GPS hired a transcription service — a company unaware of the connection to Planned Parenthood — to transcribe the videos so that they could then compare the results with transcripts publicized by the anti-abortion group.
The analysis showed "substantive omissions" from the group's version, said Glenn Simpson, a co-founder of Fusion GPS, who was also assisted in the analysis by several others including a video forensics expert, Grant Fredericks, and a television producer, Scott Goldie.
While the analysis concludes that there are obvious alterations, the Times reports that the extent to which the videos were altered is still unclear.
However, "the manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries," the analysis stated.
The Times says that if The Center for Medical Progress provides original material, and that material is independently authenticated as unaltered, the videos could then be relied on for official inquiries.
The Center for Medical Progress issued a statement on Planned Parenthood's analysis of the videos:
"Planned Parenthood's desperate, 11th-hour attempt to pay their hand-picked 'experts' to distract from the crimes documented on video is a complete failure. The absence of bathroom breaks and waiting periods between meetings does not change the hours of dialogue with top-level Planned Parenthood executives eager to manipulate abortion procedures to get high-quality baby parts for financially profitable sale.
"While even Planned Parenthood's 'experts' found 'no evidence of audio manipulation' in the recordings, it is telling that Planned Parenthood is trying so hard to pretend that their staff did not refer to a dismembered fetus as 'a baby' and 'another boy.'"
The statement continues: "Planned Parenthood's abortion providers are far more honest about the brutal reality of their work than the paid political consultants at the national office. If Planned Parenthood really wants to disprove the now-overwhelming body of evidence that their affiliates traffick in baby body parts, they should release their fetal tissue contracts with the for-profit company StemExpress for law enforcement, Congress, and all the world to see."