Since the release of Live Action’s investigative video yesterday morning, Planned Parenthood has yet to offer a response that truly answers the questions. Leslie Kantor, MPH, vice president of education for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has given a statement which basically covers five things:
- Planned Parenthood takes swift action when “entry-level” employees do not use the appropriate protocols, and the counselor in the video has been fired.
- Retraining is being conducted for other employees at the Austin, Texas facility to deal with similar “unusual” scenarios.
- Live Action clearly deals in hoaxes and edits…these words are used five times in the statement.
- Planned Parenthood “condemns sex selection” and works against gender bias.
- Planned Parenthood sides with the “world’s leading women’s health and rights organizations” in their position that banning sex selection abortion will not help to stop discrimination against women.
Okay, nice talking points. But let’s get down to the real questions. Why, exactly, was this employee fired? To say that she didn’t follow protocol or exercise the highest standard of care isn’t very helpful. Details, please. What exactly is your protocol? How, Planned Parenthood, are you “retraining” your other employees to respond to sex-selection abortions?
Oh yes…on the retraining: if it’s “re-training,” what did you train your employees to do the first time? From your repeated claims that this is an unusual encounter, I gather that you really never trained your employees on this in the first place. So, please, either use honest words or let us know exactly how you train and retrain your employees in obvious gender discrimination situations.
It’s pretty fun to use words like “hoax” and “edit,” but why can’t you address the full-length, unedited video that Live Action has released? Does that catch you in gender discrimination – something you claim to oppose – just a little too much?
Another question on your employee: was she fired for giving advice on how to commit Medicaid fraud? If so, I can see why you wouldn’t want to draw attention to one of your employees trying to cheat the government. After all, that’s what the congressional investigation into Planned Parenthood is supposed to be all about.
How do you reconcile the fact that you “condemn” sex-selection abortion but claim to be “nonjudgmental” toward women who want it? It’s kinda one or the other. You don’t condemn something and then turn around and perform it – and make money off it, at that! Nice for you, yes? Use the easy way out: “Oh, we condemn this horrible practice!” But behind closed doors, you slip the money you earn from this horrible practice into your nicely lined pockets. Wow…I think everyone can see just how opposed to sex-selection abortions you really are.
If you genuinely feel like you’re being unfairly targeted for your war on women in the womb, why don’t you just come right out and say that you’d just as happily abort a little boy if someone asked you to do that? In the end, you probably don’t care what gender is being discriminated against. You just care that you get paid for every abortion – regardless of the reason. That’s likely your answer, but I’d love to hear you actually say that on record.
Finally, let’s review some more of your highfalutin talk about opposing gender bias. After all, with all those “world organizations” on your side, what could there possibly be to criticize? You say:
We support efforts that ensure girls and women have access to economic opportunity, including fair wages, basic health care, political participation, education, and a life free of violence and discrimination.
Wait a second. If you don’t give a girl the opportunity to be born, how can she ever have access to economic opportunity? If you use “medicine” to kill her, how can you truly claim to speak for her right to basic health care? When you use your political position to silence her voice, why do you lie and say you care about her political participation? How can you ignore the facts of basic science but claim to support her access to education? And above all, how do you dare to say that she has a right to a life free of violence and discrimination when you’re the one committing the ultimate act of violence – and discrimination – against her?
