Anti-abortion activists posing as sex traffickers tried to coax Planned Parenthood clinics into bending the rules to provide care for teenage girls. Image: CC TheTruthAbout/Flickr
Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides reproductive health care, contraception and abortions for lower-income Americans, is under siege by conservatives. House Republicans and anti-abortion groups have launched a campaign to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding. Last month, members of an anti-abortion group posing as sex-traffickers and armed with video cameras tried to punk Planned Parenthood clinics in five states.
Planned Parenthood calls FBI about fake pimp
Last week a Planned Parenthood clinic in Perth Amboy, N.J., was visited by two members of the anti-abortion group Live Action who were carrying hidden video cameras and posing as a pimp and a prostitute. Live Action released an edited video Tuesday in which the bogus pimp asks for information about bringing in teenage girls for medical examinations and abortions. The manager of the clinic appears to suggest bending Planned Parenthood rules in order to ensure that the teenage girls are cared for. She suggested that they lie about their age to avoid red tape and recommended seeking abortions elsewhere. After the Live Action impostors left the clinic, Planned Parenthood called the FBI about the incident.
The Live Action Planned Parenthood video
Planned Parenthood told the Justice Department that people posing as sex traffickers visited at least 11 neighborhood clinics. After capturing footage in Perth Amboy that could be edited to support its anti-abortion views, Live Action president Lila Rose said the video is proof that Planned Parenthood willfully breaks the law to cover up the abuse of girls it is supposed to protect. Rose conspired with right wing activist James O’Keefe on a 2009 video hoax that ruined the community activist group Acorn. The Live Action Planned Parenthood video resulted in the firing of the Perth Amboy clinic manager.
House Republicans target Planned Parenthood
An anti-abortion website called Expose Planned Parenthood went live Tuesday. Meanwhile, House Republicans, who pledged to focus on jobs, have so far voted to repeal health care reform and have been trying to push a bill called HR 3. HR 3 attempts to limit federal funding for abortions to cases in which a woman’s life threatened or there is evidence of rape or incest. Opponents of HR 3 have said that the bill is an attempt to end federal funding for abortions that is allowed under current law and a government intrusion on women’s rights.
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