Planned Parenthood budget fight - NYT cites discredited "Live Action" video scam

[underpants]

Planned Parenthood Financing Is Caught in Budget Feud

Now, in a surprise step that has set off deep alarm among advocates for women’s health, the newly conservative House of Representatives has proposed cutting the entire $317 million program of aid for family planning, known as Title X, in a 2011 spending bill that is expected to pass by the weekend. A proposed amendment to the bill would also bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds for any purpose.

Planned Parenthood’s role as a major abortion provider has long provoked fierce opposition, but this month its opponents broadened their attacks, seeking to discredit the organization by linking it to the sexual exploitation of minors. A group called Live Action, which has repeatedly taken aim at Planned Parenthood and receives support from conservative foundations, released undercover videotapes in which clinic employees are seen answering questions from a man posing as a sex trafficker. Planned Parenthood says the tapes are misleading, that an errant staff member was fired and that its affiliates reported the encounters to law enforcement.

In the covert videos that were widely released on the Internet, clinic employees answer questions from a man, posing as a sex trafficker, about obtaining care for under-age prostitutes. A coalition including the Family Research Council, the Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America and others created a Web site called “Expose Planned Parenthood” that has used Internet press conferences, appeals to sympathetic pastors, vigils and floods of phone calls to ratchet up the pressure on Congress.

Planned Parenthood calls the videotapes “misleading” and “dirty tricks,” taking advantage of its culture of confidentiality. Yet the organization said it would immediately retrain all employees on requirements for reporting any threats to minors.


In an e-mailed response, Lila Rose, the president of Live Action, said the answer was not to support a group that, in her words, helps sex traffickers. But she did not suggest how Planned Parenthood’s birth control services could be replaced.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/politics/18parenthood.html?_r=1&hp