The largest provider of abortion facilities in the United States is facing a federal investigation and calls for its defunding following the release of two undercover videos allegedly showing members of the group negotiating the sale of foetal body parts.

Two members of Planned Parenthood were captured on film by pro-life advocates posing as representatives of a medical research company. In the footage, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Dr Deborah Nucatola, details how medics at facilities will work to perform a termination in such a way so as to preserve required ’tissue’, such as the head, heart or lungs of a foetus. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood medical director Mary Gatter, in a separate video, is seen negotiating financial returns – referred to as “compensation” – for body parts and, while insisting Planned Parenthood cannot be seen to be profiting from the trade, she goes on to joke, “I want a Lamborghini”.

Despite a statement from Planned Parenthood that it was acting entirely within the law on its supply of foetal parts to research facilities, six states – Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin – have now announced investigations into its operations on foot of the videos’ contents, while in Washington DC, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has announced it is to investigate the matter at the federal level.

Meanwhile, on foot of the damaging publicity, a number of corporate donors to Planned Parenthood have reportedly pulled their funding and asked the group to remove them from the list of donors maintained on the group’s website, which has since been removed entirely. Among high profile corporations who have backed away from their links to Planned Parenthood are Coca Cola, Xerox and the Ford Motor Company.