Abortion appears to have become a thriving business in the United States not only for the fees abortionists collect from their clients but, shockingly, for the illegal sale of foetal body parts for medical research as well.

A just released undercover video showed that Planned Parenthood, one abortion provider based in Los Angeles, California, was using an illegal partial birth procedure to lucratively sell intact foetal body parts.

The video showed Planned Parenthood senior director of medical services Dr. Deborah Nucatola speaking freely to undercover investigators posing as buyers while sipping wine and eating salad in a restaurant.

The Center for Medical Progress said it recorded and edited the video. It said the video clearly showed how Planned Parenthood was breaking the law by selling foetal organs.

The investigators learned from Nucatola that Planned Parenthood charges $30 to $100 per specimen, and that foetal liver is actually the part that sells the most. Nucatola revealed that "a lot of people want intact hearts these days" and that she has also received requests for lungs and "lower extremities."

Nucatola said the company's affiliates "absolutely" want to sell such organs but that their abortionists have been very careful not to give the impression that they are actually making a profit out of those foetal body parts.

"They just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as, 'The clinic is selling tissue. This clinic is making money off of this,'" she said.

Nucatola was very candid during the meeting, and went on detail how they abort the babies without damaging the foetal parts. She said she begins each day with a "huddle" to determine what body parts are needed, and the abortionists will take particular care that day not to destroy the parts needed.

As abortionists are dismembering the child, they will then determine, "I'm not gonna crush that part. I'm gonna basically crush below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact," said Nucatola.

"Some people," she said, "will actually try to change the presentation so that it's not vertex (head first). So, if you do it starting from the breech presentation (feet first)... often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium (the head) at the end."

Experts said what Planned Parenthood is doing is illegal since former President George W. Bush signed a law in 2003 outlawing partial birth abortion. Those found guilty of doing this procedure face a federal felony charge punishable by two years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Moreover, trafficking human body parts is punishable by 10 years in jail and a fine of $500,000.

Nucatola said the company is mindful of the law but has found ways to circumvent it.

"The federal abortion ban is a law, and laws are up to interpretation," she said. "So, if I say on day one that I don't intend to do this, what ultimately happens doesn't matter."

"At the national office, we have a Litigation and Law Department which just really doesn't want us to be the middle people for this issue right now," she further said. "But I will tell you that behind closed doors these conversations are happening with the affiliates."