An anti-abortion group linked to right-wing gadfly James O'Keefe has produced its own hidden camera video purporting to show a pimp and a prostitute getting advice from a familiar conservative target. How many times can this gimmick jump the shark? Last time, the target was community-organizing group ACORN; this time it's Planned Parenthood. The approach is very similar: a man claiming to be a pimp enters the Planned Parenthood clinic in the Bronx and asks about health services for underage sex workers. Gotcha?
The group, Live Action, claims the video shows Planned Parenthood employees "offering guidance on how the pimp’s underage girls can get insurance through tax payer funded programs to pay for abortions and other services even if the underage girls that are not U.S. citizens." As you can see from the video, Live Action is correct that the employee seems "unfazed" by the sex workers. So are they saying she should have tackled them to the ground and made a citizen's arrest? Or does it maybe make sense to try to get the (nonexistent) prostitutes into the clinic so they can be helped?
In a statement, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson says, "We have reviewed the tapes, and the conversation as portrayed is not accurate. These tapes are part of a nationwide campaign by this group. Unlike other publicized tapes, the hoax patients in New York were not able to get beyond the reception desk for a private consultation. Like other encounters that have been recently publicized in Virginia, our staff responded professionally to questions, discussed these encounters with management, and provided a report to the FBI.
"Had the teens in question come into our center, they would have met with a licensed social worker. All teens coming into Planned Parenthood of New York City are screened for child abuse and neglect. All teens who disclose abuse meet with a licensed social worker, who records and reports the abuse."
For those keeping score at home, Live Action was founded by anti-abortion activist Lila Rose, who collaborated on the idea to infiltrate clinics with O'Keefe. Media Matters follows the money: "Lila Rose's anti-choice activism began with a grant from Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, which has been training young right-wingers for leadership roles for more than 30 years... I recently attended one of the Institute's breakfast meetings with news-makers; the speaker was Tim Phillips, president of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the astroturf group founded and chaired by David Koch. Phillips, you see, is a graduate of the Institute, as are many right-wing luminaries."
