The leader of Live Action, one of the nation’s leading pro-life organizations, said Wednesday the group’s undercover video recordings at the nation’s abortion clinics have exposed a string of abuses and called on Congress to pull all government funding for the nation’s leading provider of abortion services.
Six years of undercover investigations at Planned Parenthood of America clinics have shown “an institutionalized pattern of dangerous and illegal behavior,” Lila Rose, president of Live Action, said Wednesday, as she released a lengthy report about her organization’s findings over the years.
“It’s a disgrace that we are all forced to fund” Planned Parenthood, Ms. Rose said, calling for an immediate revocation of all taxpayer funds to the group. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s budget reportedly comes from government sources.
Eric Ferrero, vice president of communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said the Live Action report was “just a rehash of claims and discredited assertions that have been aired years ago.”
“As a high-quality health care provider, we have extremely high standards and take swift action if we learn that our high standards are not being met. That’s not what this organization’s political campaign is about; their agenda is to cut women off from access to health care,” he said.
In 2007, Ms. Rose began surreptitiously taking recorders and cameras into abortion clinics to capture conversations with clinic workers.
The videos over the years have exposed conversations related to child sexual abuse, statutory rape, sex trafficking and sex-selection abortion.
At a number of Planned Parenthood clinics around the country, Ms. Rose and her associates pretended to be young girls seeking abortions to end pregnancies caused by older men, with clinic employees in several instances advising the underage “clients” on how to get around state parental notification laws.
In its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood said it received $540 million in federal funding.
It also reported providing 327,166 abortions, 3.7 million tests for sexually transmitted diseases, and 3.7 million services related to birth control.
“Planned Parenthood has been providing high-quality, affordable health care for nearly 100 years, and we help nearly 3 million patients nationwide every year,” said Mr. Ferrero. “Americans do not want politicians to interfere with women’s access to health care.”
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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