If there isn't a problem, they will do their damndest to make sure they create one, to advance their anti-choice agenda.
Discredited anti-choice activist Lila Rose launched her latest video hoax, claiming that a highly edited video proves that Planned Parenthood is facilitating rampant "gendercide" in America. But statistics show that sex-selection simply does not happen with any regularity in the United States,
Rose released undercover footage purporting to show a clinic worker discussing health care options with a woman who claimed to want to terminate her pregnancy if she was carrying a girl. Live Action claims that Planned Parenthood is complicit in "Widespread sex-selection by means of abortion." And their goal is
aimed at "exposing the practice of sex-selective abortion in the United States and how Planned Parenthood and the rest of the abortion industry facilitate the selective elimination of baby girls in the womb."
Earlier this week they released a video of a an encounter with a clinic worker in Austin, Texas, and later this week one in New York City.
Anti-choice activist Lila Rose and her group Live Action have released an undercover video of an activist in New York City pretending to want to abort a fetus if it's not a male. This is part their effort to manufacture evidence that Planned Parenthood facilitates gender-based abortion -- even though statistics show that sex-selective abortion simply does not happen with any regularity in the United States, as the vast majority of abortions are performed before gender is detectable, and the gender birth ratio in America is close to even.
Sex-selective abortion is not something that exists in real life in America to any notable degree. But you won't hear that from Lila Rose, who has declared it her mission to "take out Planned Parenthood." And don't expect to hear that from those in the right-wing media who uncritically hype Rose's hoax videos and dishonest activism, of whom Bill O'Reilly and Michelle Malkin are merely the latest.
In a petition accompanying the video Rose refers to
worldwide gender based sex selection practices and concludes that therefore, this must be happening in the US as well. And she will put a stop to it!
But actual evidence shows that sex-selection in America is neither widespread nor growing. According to the CIA's World Factbook, the gender ratio at birth in the United States is 1.05 males to females, a rate that the Guttmacher Institute calls "squarely within biologically normal parameters." The United States simply does not have a gender imbalance that would indicate that sex-selection occurs with any regularity.
Further, most abortions are performed before gender is identifiable.
So what was in the original video, and what was left out? The original video was over an hour long, and the shorter one was edited down to 7 minutes. The 'pregnant' actress's encounter with the Planned Parenthood employee itself lasted half an hour. The Planned Parenthood employee never encouraged her to have an sex-selective abortion and did discuss
adoption as an alternative, which was edited out.
Despite Live Action's suggestions in the edited video, at no point did the Planned Parenthood employee encourage the activist to undergo a sex-selective abortion.
The edited video leaves the following on the cutting room floor:
•The employee asked the activist, "And have you guys -- you know, 'cause we're required to discuss all of the, you know, a patient's options -- is adoption something that you were interested in considering?" [53:45]
•After the activist claimed she used a test designed to identify the sex of a fetus early in a pregnancy, the employee responded, "I'm also a social worker and not a medical provider, so, you know, so from, you know, my role here, that isn't something I've ever heard of." [40:10]
•The employee asked the activist, "And have you decided that you -- you know, have you definitely decided that you would like to terminate your pregnancy?" [38:40]
•The activist asked whether Planned Parenthood had an OB/GYN it would "specifically ... recommend" who "would be understanding of my situation." The employee responded, "I really -- no, I don't really know of an OB/GYN prenatal doctor who -- I can tell you that they do prenatal care. I can tell you that they, you know, that they would be able to do these tests for you. I can't really say that there's going to be someone in particular who is going to be necessarily understanding. Most OB/GYN doctors, hopefully, you know, are understanding that it's a woman's choice to decide if she's interested in adoption, if she's interested in prenatal care, if she's interested in terminating. And whatever somebody's decision is for having an abortion is really her choice." [49:30]
This is a bald-faced attempt by Lila Rose and her forced birth group to tie Planned Parenthood to a problem that does not exist in the US, and proof that she and her organization are willing to engage in dishonest and deceitful campaigns in an attempt to a group dedicated to providing women's health services.
The entire video