Saying Planned Parenthood is making money from lies is very "pot and kettle", Gianna.
Last week, I examined the body of evidence surrounding the story of Gianna Jessen, a woman who was born alive in April of 1977 during an attempted third-trimester saline abortion. She
testified before Congress last Wednesday implicating Planned Parenthood in her mother's abortion, which led
many different
blogs and
news outlets of
various qualities to incorrectly report that Gianna was actually born at a Planned Parenthood facility. One more irresponsible one even reported that the stock image she showed Congress of a
a 22-week old fetus killed during a saline abortion was actually a
picture of Gianna herself at birth. (Yes, even
The Rude Pundit got suckered.)
Gianna Jessen has never presented any proof that her mother ever stepped foot in a Planned Parenthood clinic, and the very questionable 1995 biography by Jessica Shaver reveals that the only source for her claims that her mother received coercive counseling from Planned Parenthood is the second-hand account from "Tina", a woman private investigators located in the early '90s claiming to be her biological mother. That lurid account of a scared pro-life teenager being deceived and coerced into a horrific late-term abortion attempt has glaring factual inconsistencies, including the claim that "You Light Up My Life" was being played on Los Angeles radio stations in April of 1977, months before it was released.
Even though the biography and Gianna's birth certificate prove that her mother's saline abortion was performed at Avalon Memorial Hospital by Dr. Edward C. Allred, pro-life websites and blogs continue to report that Planned Parenthood performed her mother's abortion... and Gianna has never corrected them. She appears to carefully construct her statements to support this myth without lying outright, even though she seems to have no problems letting others lie for her.
But at what point does careful speech and omission of critical facts cross over into a full-blown "lie"? A recent Tweet, in my opinion, crossed that line. Judge for yourself!
When I first heard Gianna's story, I approved of her efforts to protect the lives of babies born alive during attempted abortion procedures. I'm pro-choice because I don't feel I have the right to tell other people what to do with their bodies, but for myself, I could never have an abortion that late in pregnancy. It seems like many women agree with me - if the 2011 data holds true, one-third of all abortions in the United States occur before six weeks have passed since their last menstrual period, when the embryo is at Carnegie Stage 13. 66% are performed before eight weeks LMP (Carnegie Stage 17). 91% occurred before 13 weeks. Only 1.6% of abortions occur after 21 weeks LMP - about the same number as abortions of pregnancies reported to be the result of rape, incest, or abortions carried out to save the life of the mother.
But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of "cure", so they say (which I put in quotes because obviously abortion doesn't "cure" the unborn), and in the last 35 years, the abortion rate in the United States has dropped by nearly half. In those same 35 years, Planned Parenthood has expanded, providing crucial contraception services, STD testing, breast and pelvic exams, and cancer screenings. A significant number of their clinics only offer medical abortion (which causes abortion via early induced miscarriage instead of killing the baby with instruments, and can only be given before the 49th day LMP), and in states like Oklahoma they don't perform abortions at all. Yet activists like Gianna have advocated that Planned Parenthood not be allowed to accept Medicaid or Title X funding for those services that have done far more to reduce abortion rates and unplanned pregnancies than laws restricting abortion and abstinence-only sex education have accomplished, even in states where they don't carry out abortions.
We've seen deception by pro-life activists before - the "creative editing" of the recent Planned Parenthood undercover videos is just the most recent lie told in the attempt to "do God's work". I always thought Gianna was honest, though, and there's no doubt her story is compelling. Here she is in a Focus on the Family interview when she was just 17 years old, the same age her mother was when she sought an abortion:
Notice how her testimony then was that her mother "decided to walk into a Southern California abortion clinic and have what's called a saline abortion". There's no mention of Planned Parenthood despite the fact the segment with Diana DePaul, Gianna's adoptive mother who kept aborted fetuses in jars in her home while she was growing up, indicates this interview was after she allegedly met "Tina":
When you hear that voice, you believe her when she says she has forgiveness for her mother, don't you? She sounds peaceful. The words the only mother that really matters said to her are so true: "Instead of concentrating on the fact that you almost died, rejoice in the fact that you are alive." Even James Dobson commented that she really wasn't angry.
So what happened between then and now, when a seemingly quite bitter woman delivered an angry denunciation of an organization dedicated to preventing the need for abortions for allegedly convincing her mother to have the late-term abortion, with language clearly crafted to imply they actually performed the abortion -- and without a shred of solid evidence that Planned Parenthood had anything to do with it? If "Tina's" story is even remotely true, Planned Parenthood obviously refused to perform such a procedure so late in her mother's pregnancy. That's in sharp contrast to both the perception she cultivates, and to her fellow survivor's allegation that if her mother had walked into a Planned Parenthood clinic she would be dead.
The first appearance of the myth seems to be in 2002, after Gianna testified to the House Judiciary Subcommittee in support of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act on July 20th, 2000.
But the myth really took off when Ted Harvey introduced her to the Colorado State Legislature and claimed she was a survivor of an abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility. She didn't correct him, and apparently the idea of a "survivor of a Planned Parenthood abortion" singing the National Anthem before that legislative body was about to honor the 90th anniversary of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains was too rich not to believe... or to refute.
She has included her claim that Planned Parenthood was (at least indirectly) responsible for her mother's abortion in every speech since, with no clarification that the "Los Angeles abortion clinic" wasn't actually owned by Planned Parenthood. Numerous state right-to-life organizations publish this lie, along with too many other sites to link to them all, and there is no evidence Gianna Jessen has ever made a public statement addressing this rumor.
But I believe she crossed the line from mere deceptive wording into what can only classified as the same type of lie as Bill Clinton's famous statement that he "did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky", when she tweeted out the case history notes from the California social services agency that handled her adoption:
The link to her birth certificate that she brags was signed by her mother's abortionist, however, isn't attached. Is that because it directly contradicts the lie she obviously wants the American people to believe?
Gianna says frequently that she is "God's girl" and answers only to Him. But I wish she would pay attention to what as Jesus told the Pharisees about why Satan is the father of lies:
"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." -- John 8:44
Gianna, I rejoice that you are alive.
But please, either start clarifying that Planned Parenthood did not actually perform the abortion that nearly ended your life, or stop saying they had anything at all to do with your mother's decision to have an abortion. It's irresponsible enough to attack them based on claims you never actually heard first-hand yourself, and which can't be supported by any hard evidence.
Using those claims to attempt to mislead Congress and the American people, however, is not a fruit of God. It is undoubtedly fruit of the Father of Lies himself.
Stand in the truth -- if it really doesn't matter if your abortion was performed at Planned Parenthood or not, then it will not harm the cause to admit the abortion wasn't performed there, or to acknowledge you have no proof your mother actually received counseling there (let alone the coercive counseling Shaver's biography alleges). Otherwise you are merely creating further controversy that damages the pro-life movement, and apparently making enough money from peddling the lie for nearly a decade that you have become corrupted by it -- and it's understandable you wouldn't want to lose the income. Nothing on the web indicates you have held down a job since selling out like this.
And almost everything about that makes me very sad.