Opening another front in the war against women
by digby
One would think that after the ACORN videos were shown to be edited and misleading that the mainstream press would be a little bit more skeptical of this latest nonsense about Planned Parenthood , but from what I'm seeing on the TV, they are choosing to cover this as a he said/she said and it's legitimizing the hoax --- and the tactic.
But needless to say, the right wingers are using them to further their radical anti-choice agenda. Media matters has the story:
Since the release of a second video from anti-choice group Live Action, which shows a Planned Parenthood worker at a Richmond, Virginia, clinic advising a man and woman posing as a pimp and prostitute, right-wing media have suggested that the video shows Planned Parenthood engaged in wrongdoing. In fact, the Richmond clinic reported the incident to Planned Parenthood's national security team, and legal experts have agreed that the worker's advice in the video is consistent with state law.
She told them that it was illegal for underage persons to obtain abortions without parental consent unless they obtain a judicial bypass. That is the letter of the law. And yet the wingnuts are having a full blown hissy fit over it by suggesting that this person did something wrong.
Now there is also the issue of these people pretending to be sex workers exploiting underage girls. But Planned Parenthood strictly followed the law and reported these hoaxters to the FBI. So unless the idea is that Planned Parenthood is not allowed to tell patients what the law states and must perform a citizen's arrest rather than call the FBI when confronted with a self-proclaimed sex trafficker, this should not even be worthy of comment.
But if this goes the way that these things tend to go, I suspect it will put judicial bypass back on the agenda of abortion rights that are no longer available in many places. After all, conservative legislators will now have "evidence" that it's being used to exploit under age prostitutes.
Update: And it does appear that they are doctoring their videos again.
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