OPINION:
When I first decided to go undercover into America’s largest abortion industry, I expected to find some problems. I’ve known about abortion for a long time — since I began my advocacy work as a young teen — and it made sense that an organization that profits off killing innocent little human beings would be willing to cut a lot of ethical corners.
Even with that mental preparation, what I found in 2007 — and what Live Action has found in the years since — has shocked me.
In the very first undercover video I recorded, the Planned Parenthood investigator told me to “figure out a birth date that works.” She thought I was 15, impregnated by a 23-year-old man, and she told me to lie about both our ages in order to keep the police from getting involved. This occurred in California, a state that requires health care providers to immediately report suspected abuse of minors.
Completely illegal counseling, in the very first video. Things haven’t changed.
We had an investigator pose as a racist, asking Planned Parenthood to assure him that his donation to the corporation would go directly toward the killing of black babies in the womb. Our investigator was not condemned; instead, he heard, “This is the first time I’ve had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I’m excited, and I wanted to make sure I don’t leave anything out.”
We found Planned Parenthood counselors willing to cover up a sex-trafficking ring comprising 14- and 15-year-old girls who didn’t speak English. “We do see teens and stuff, young,” one said, but “[e]verything here is confidential.” “Teens can obviously be a different issue,” another warned. “There’s parental consent and everything.” Still another coached our pimp-and-prostitute duo to call themselves “guardians” of the sex slaves to be eligible for cheaper fees.
None of these quotations comes from the one counselor Planned Parenthood fired — a manager in New Jersey who promised to “tweak some information” and “alter the story” in order to keep the sex ring secret. These were all employees whom Planned Parenthood didn’t see fit to fire.
We’ve seen the manipulative lies and misinformation peddled in Planned Parenthood facilities — not just in our investigation focusing specifically on this subject, but in every investigation. The fetus is not a human being, we hear. It doesn’t look like a baby yet. Heartbeat begins in the “eighth or ninth” week (wrong — it begins in the third). A seven-week-old child has “no legs, no arms, no head, no brain, no heart” (wrong — that little boy or girl has all of those things). If you’re a young woman in a tough situation — shaky finances, unsteady relationship or even the smallest qualm — it’s best to get that abortion.
We’ve found Planned Parenthood counselors willing to help make a sex-selective abortion happen — to see to it that a little girl in the womb is killed just for being a girl. That’s your decision, our investigators heard over and over. Far be it from anyone to judge you for exterminating your daughter — and if you think your OB/GYN might have a problem with it, just lie to her, get the ultrasound, learn the baby’s sex, and schedule the late-term abortion appointment.
When it comes to the scientific reality of the baby in the womb, to the scope of Planned Parenthood’s services, or whether women really need this child-killing corporation, Planned Parenthood’s policy is to say whatever it takes to cash an abortion check.
When it comes to abuse — the abuse of mothers, of young girls or of defenseless preborn children — the overarching mentality is Don’t ask. Don’t report. Don’t judge. As one counselor told me personally, “We don’t ask any questions.” What Planned Parenthood calls “confidentiality” is really a company code of secrecy that shrouds violence and sends victims back into the arms of their abusers. It makes millions for Planned Parenthood.
Keep in mind that this abortion group quietly fired several staff members and retrained all 11,000 employees in the wake of Live Action investigations. Yet Planned Parenthood’s spokesmen and CEO staunchly insist that they’ve done no wrong, and that they deserve a massive check from taxpayers every year.
The old saying goes, “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no lies.” Our investigators keep asking the questions. In the counseling room, Planned Parenthood has told a twisted truth. Now that the American people are joining us in asking questions, and state and federal legislators across the country are joining us, Planned Parenthood is ramping up the lie machine.
I find myself remembering that same thought that occurred to me when I first started going undercover: A corporation that destroys the innocent for a buck (or millions of bucks) will have no problem lying to keep the money rolling in.
Planned Parenthood, rife as it is with abuses and lawbreaking, got $541 million in taxpayer funding in 2012, the year of its most recent financial report. (It got $542 million the year before that.) Our government forces you, me and everyone else who pulls a paycheck to fund the nastiness seeping out of this corporation.
Live Action has a petition out to end the taxpayer funding of Big Abortion. I’m hoping that our new investigative report helps to wake people up — both on Capitol Hill and in the average American living room.
When we investigate Planned Parenthood, our investigators study the real victims that this corporation hurts every day. When we release our findings, we speak on behalf of every woman and young girl exploited by this corporation, and we speak for the preborn children who have no voice.
When we demand the defunding of Planned Parenthood, we’re calling for an end to forced participation in some of the gravest human rights abuses today.
Lila Rose is president of Live Action.
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