The most important thing to recognize about the right-wing freakshow's latest pimp-n-ho videorama is that today's anti-choice activists don't think they can get their way if they say what they actually believe. So instead of saying what they really want, they dream up elaborate sting operations unrelated to their true objectives. They dress up as sex traffickers instead of admitting that their one and only goal is to limit access to reproductive health services. And when reporters give airtime to these kinds of sting operations, they aren't engaging in journalism. Whether they know it or not, they are acting as tools of a hidden agenda.
Each of the above points should be obvious to any decent journalist who spends more than 10 seconds thinking about the issue. The sting itself isn't the real story. The real story is why won't the organizers of the sting say what they really want.
To answer that, let's focus on what their true objectives really are. Obviously, they want to crush Planned Parenthood. But why do they want that? Simple: they want to crush Planned Parenthood because Planned Parenthood provides the public with reproductive health services. And the last thing Planned Parenthood's enemies want is for Americans to have is control over their own reproductive health.
What would the world look like without Planned Parenthood? Well, consider the services they provided in 2008:
Source: Planned Parenthood 2008-9 annual report
That's what these guys are fighting against. It's not just abortion. It's contraception, STD prevention, cancer prevention, and other services. In fact, most of what they want to take away are the sorts of things that keep young men and women healthy and prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. Their objectives are truly vile. No wonder they don't want to admit what they are fighting for. And when the media give their bogus smear operations airtime, they are aiding and abetting that vile agenda -- an agenda that could not stand on its own two feet.
