… “this time”, I should add. From Jodi Jacobsen at RH Reality Check, “‘Sex Traffickers’ Target Planned Parenthood in Possible Live Action Films Hoax“:
In what is perhaps one of the most craven actions of a deeply craven movement, anti-choice scam artists apparently affiliated with Live Action Films and Lila Rose of undercover “gotcha film-fame” appear to have attempted an “ACORN-like” hoax on Planned Parenthood Federation of America by sending people into Planned Parenthood health centers in six states posing as sex traffickers seeking health care for young girls who were “part” of their supposed sex trafficking rings.
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In response, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder describing the visits and asking for an investigation. In a statement, PPFA said:
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Last week, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) alerted federal authorities to a potential multistate sex trafficking ring. Over a five day period, visitors to Planned Parenthood health centers in six states said they were seeking information from Planned Parenthood about health services Planned Parenthood could provide to underage girls who were part of a sex trafficking ring. Subsequent to alerting U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Planned Parenthood learned the identify of one of those involved and believes these visits are likely a hoax by opponents of legal abortion seeking to discredit Planned Parenthood, which delivers preventive health care and abortion services to three million women each year.
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PPFA reports that men, sometimes accompanied by a woman, “visited at least 11 Planned Parenthood health centers in six states within a one-week time frame.” The visits were made between January 11th and January 15th to health centers in Virginia, Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Arizona. “Among them was a clinic in Tucson, Ariz., which Planned Parenthood said was visited on the 15th, a week after [emphasis added] the shooting rampage in that city that critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords…
Jacobsen links to an AP article, “Planned Parenthood seeks FBI probe“:
Lila Rose began infiltrating abortion clinics in 2006. One of her early collaborators was James O’Keefe, who later became famous for wearing a pimp costume in a video that embarrassed the community organizing group ACORN.
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After forming Live Action, Rose gained prominence with a series of undercover videos in which she posed as a girl in her early teens who’d been impregnated by an older man. The aim was to portray Planned Parenthood staff as willing to ignore laws that required the reporting of cases of suspected statutory rape. In Indiana, one clinic employee was fired and another resigned after Live Action videos were released.
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In December, Live Action announced that it was preparing to launch several major new investigations during 2011 and said it had received a $125,000 gift to finance the operations. It did not identify the source of that gift.
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Rose has said her goal is to unnerve Planned Parenthood employees and eventually put them out of business.
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“We will work to de-fund them in every state wherever it is possible, to de-license them and to expose them,” she told the conservative Value Voters Summit in October.
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“The other part of it, too, is to create controversy within the organization, keep them on their toes,” she said. “We need to help them feel that fear.”
Jacobsen updated her original post: “As of 12:14 pm, January 25th, 2011, Jill Stanek has stated on her website that Lila Rose did indeed send pseudo “sex traffickers” into PPFA clinics (“They’ve been stung again by Lila Rose….”) and also warns of “explosive evidence,” of which they of course present… none. They appear to have no credible response to exposure of their efforts to perpetrate a hoax on Planned Parenthood.”
Hat tip to commentor Southern Beale for the link.
The difference between Planned Parenthood and ACORN, of course, is that PP has been dealing with armed zealots and terrorists bent on murder for its entire existence — but especially since the rise of the “Moral Majority” whose entire morality seems to consist of abusing other people’s autonomy, health, and safety.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
There are times when I think that maybe, just maybe, it’s time for the left to actually be equivalent to the right on these things. Maybe it’s time to bring a gun to a political fight. Maybe it’s for a group to go nuts at a Bachmann rally.
WereBear (itouch)
These people are freaks. If their religion made sense it would not set them off. However…
And there you go.
To paraphrase the movie Burn After Reading, “What have we learned?”
“Not do it again!”
freelancer
In not unrelated news, American Democracy is a failure. We need a Benevolent Christian Dictator.
NobodySpecial
Wow, they’re getting desperate, aren’t they? Don’t they realize that likely targets already know this is possible and are on the lookout?
Punchy
From her wiki page:
Wow, imagine that.
merrinc
Let me guess, Lila Rose isn’t in favor of SCHIPP, Head Start, or any other government funded program that might help at risk children.
Mnemosyne
@NobodySpecial:
They don’t really care if their targets are on the lookout. In fact, people like Lila Rose want Planned Parenthood employees to think they’re constantly being watched and stalked (which they are) so they can grind them down and make them give up their jobs. They want to make the PP employees’ jobs so horrible that PP won’t be able to find anyone to take them.
War of attrition. And if their target proves to be stronger and more stubborn than they are, they have other methods.
Silver
@merrinc:
It’s a precious gift of life from God, until it pokes out of the vagina, then it’s just another nigger welfare mouth.
asiangrrlMN
I hope people like Lila Rose start getting tossed in jail and actually doing some time, along with the nutters who stalk clinic workers and such. I think that may be the only deterrent to their increasingly bold and distasteful behavior.
dr. bloor
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
No need to be so disruptive. A collective of folks willing to follow O’Keefe around Every. Fucking. Minute of his pathetic life, including photograpic documentation of Every. Other. Pathetic human being he interacts with should be plenty disruptive.
Labor intensive, but probably for a short period of time. That WATB would be pissing and moaning about how his rights and privacy are being violated thisfast.
dr. bloor
@Silver:
Cue ABL in three…two…one…
Ash Can
QFTMFT
protected static
It’s going on 20 years since Wichita and Buffalo and these fucking panty-sniffers are *still* grasping at the same fucking straws. I loathe these fuckers with every fiber of my being.
‘Loathe’ may not be strong enough. Likewise, ‘fuckers,’ though YMMV depending upon how wed you are to that whole ‘civility’ bullshit.
piratedan
yeah, if these people gave a rats ass about life, how about dedicating yourself to the care of millions of kids that don’t have homes RIGHT NOW?
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_orphans_live_in_the_US
I wish as a country we could get off of our religious whackjob axis and stop seeing sexual activity as somehow inherently evil. For a posse that appears to be as gung ho on personal liberties as the far right is, why is it that they think that they have the right to control what the hell you do with your own body.
Suffern ace
They can edit video anyway they want. I’m glad the organization is set up to deal with this and listens to it’s field employees when odd stuff happens. Hopefully they called the proper local authorities as well. When employees know what to do, its easier to fight back. I know there was more than a little angst when PP employed RICCO against it’s adversaries, but this attempt to ruin them needs to be addressed full on.
Chris Grrr
In more not unrelated news, Bristol Palin has been selected as keynote speaker for this year’s Sexual Responsibility Week at Washington University.
piratedan
@Chris Grrr:
well good on her, she’s managed to make the breaking of her vow of chastity and “just say no” into a money making gig that doesn’t involve her pimping herself out…..wait a minute….
daveNYC
1) As others have said in other threads. These wankers can’t lose with this tactic, and PP only has to drop the ball once and they’re boned.
2) Mnemosyne’s point of making PP workers’ lives a living hell with this is an added bonus.
Someone post some food porn, or some pet pictures. This story is just a hell of a downer.
Chris Grrr
@piratedan: If it wasn’t for the therapeutic snark here and on Wonkette I would’ve already shuffled off this mortal coil due to IOKIYAR-poisoning.
justawriter
Holly Near said it best.
Myself, I am waiting for the moment when these guys are expected and taken into custody by PP employees and while it takes the cops an hour or so to show up, some enterprising PP employee is using his heel to slowly grind these guys’ testicles into scrapple to get the “names of the girls in danger”. It wouldn’t take many instances of christian sopranos to end this bullshit in a hurry.
GregB
Are these creeps making claymation fetuses for their latest stop motion epic?
God, they are a ghoulish lot.
Citizen_X
@freelancer: Yeah, I saw that video. I can’t even raise any snark for that. Fuck that Taliban motherfucker and his KKKristian “benevolent dictatorship.”
Resident Firebagger
BTW, contrary to the linked AP article, O’Keefe never wore that pimp costume into the ACORN offices. It was edited in later.
So much depravity to keep track of here…
The Republic of Stupidity
@freelancer:
Holy shit…
I’m speechless… speechless, I am…
Brassknuckle Diplomacy
@freelancer: I actually think his candour is refreshing. I would be encouraged if more conservatives would just come out and say it: their fear of the “nanny state” is projection; they so badly want their own Daddy State. Neverending rule by a big strong daddy who rewards them for being obedient and brutally punishes the bad kids, heaven and hell on Earth for these pinheads.
PS
@freelancer: Most excellent link.
I am presuming it’s genuine because of the quality, especially in the pitch at the end. But what DOES “S.T.B.” mean?
gene108
@freelancer: What’s interesting is his view that Jesus would endorse a supply-side economic policy, where people paid very little in taxes and government thus could not provide services to the poor and needy.
Of course he may be a follower of the Gospel of Supply Side Jesus, as opposed to Jesus of Nazareth.
de stijl
@PS:
Spin the bottle?
KnaveRupe
Maybe it’s time for a liberal “sting” operation – let’s send a hidden camera to a gun show and start asking shady-ass gun dealers about what kind of ammo we should buy to take out the jack-booted ATF thugs that Obama’s gonna sic on us. Bonus points for getting them talking all racist-like on camera!
Sputnik
This makes me so angry. While these clowns are tying up law enforcement’s time, there are actual victims of trafficking that desperately need help. Lila Rose is taking away resources from trafficked women in the name of her little moral crusade.
Scott
@PS:
But what DOES “S.T.B.” mean?
Possibly Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureus – Bachelor of Sacred Theology.
debbie
God, these people are idiots. Don’t they realize that the abortion services are just a small part of Planned Parenthood’s mission, and that if they supported PP’s other services — education, health, advocacy — and made them successful, abortions would practically disappear on its own?
To me, this is evidence they could care less about abortionn — they’re too busy being publicity whores.
Silver Owl
I think these two nut jobs should be sued for reimbursement of time and money wasted on investigations due to their “infantile pranks”. I’d like to see them charged with fraud as well. Some prison time would be nice.
Bobbo
I think I may just write another check to Planned Parenthood
Persia
@debbie: The name of the game is controlling women. They’ll do it by any means necessary.
debbie
@Persia:
Yeah, they’re closet Saudis!
ppcli
@Scott:
I think in this case it stands for Sacrae Theologiae Bacillus
D. Mason
@Silver: I sure hope you’re minority, otherwise you can only aim your racial epithets at certain less sensitive groups around here.
gene108
@freelancer:
Found this on YouTubeL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St9kZqWxNfU&feature=more_related
In this version he is pushing for a Catholic monarch and not just a generic Christian one. Seems to be some sort of nut job Catholic, who wants to convert everyone to Catholicism.
ppcli
@gene108: Ah, yes, just what we need in these troubled times: A return to the happy era of Ferdinand and Katharine. It was an inquisitive age, when everyone drove delightful fey autos, and Jews and Muslims were given free ocean cruises to exotic destinations.
El Cid
Well, uh, the EEOC does exactly the same thing when it sends applicants of different ethnic backgrounds or gender or accents but with the same exact qualifications to apply for jobs or housing and the like.
It’s exactly the same. Both sides do it.
Silver
@D. Mason:
I’m whiter than Casper, actually.
kay
Why do conservatives believe liberals are “sex traffickers”?
This same issue came up with ACORN, right? Since ACORN and Planned Parenthood have hugely different areas of concern, this seems to be a constant. Is there a shred of evidence that liberals are sex traffickers, or is this more like “voter fraud”, something that conservatives believe, and no one knows why?
Or, alternately, is this another instance where they make the accusation because they are, in fact, doing what they accuse others of doing?
Just seems odd. Next I suppose they should look for the connection between teacher’s unions and sex trafficking, right? The estate tax and sex trafficking. PBS and sex trafficking.
ppcli
@kay:
“Why do conservatives believe liberals are “sex traffickers”?”
I think it is more that they really believe what they tell themselves, that liberals are “moral relativists” who don’t make any judgments of right and wrong. [“If God is dead then everything is permitted, right? And liberals think God is dead. So they must think everything is permitted, so they share the morals of the Marquis de Sade.” That “reasoning”, combined with loony misinterpretations of liberal calls for tolerance and understanding seem to be behind their “thinking”, if I may call it that.] So even if not sex traffickers themselves, they will be “tolerant” of sex trafficking in others, and this will be embarrassing when recorded and cleverly edited. Thus the ACORN thing – they were trying to show that the ACORN people were not condemning, and were even giving tax advice, to a pimp/sex trafficker.
kay
@ppcli:
The conservative activist quoted in the article uses the word “evidence” to describe the movie she made.
Since all major media got so badly played by these creeps last time (edited tape, in other words, a fiction, which media presented as fact) I’m wondering if the Planned Parenthood workers reputations will be destroyed, and whether they’ll be the subject of a criminal inquiry, like the ACORN workers.
Luckily, the ACORN workers were exonerated by an actual state-sanctioned prosecutor, but being the subject of a criminal investigation is enormously disruptive and stressful, even for the innocent.
Let’s hope media use some judgment and discretion this time, and consider the credibility of the source. There’s only one person who has been convicted of a crime since conservatives made the unfounded accusations against those individuals, and it was the conservative activist. That’s fact.
liberal
@daveNYC:
This is exactly my thought. And given human tendency to make mistakes, someone _will_ drop the ball.
ppcli
@liberal:
Yes, very true. I’m no lawyer, but I expect that PP knows a few good ones, and I hope that they are (or even: have already) laid the groundwork for bringing a massive suit for trespass or something on these people. (Maybe signs up saying “No recording equipment allowed. Any use of visual or audio Recording will be considered trespass as per Section Blah, subsection blahblah, of the Get-the-F**k [firetruck] – off my Lawn Act.” Or whatever would be the legally watertight way to do this sort of thing. )
MarkJ
I think the best revenge would be to actually have these clowns arrested for sex trafficking. I mean, we have them on tape admitting to sex trafficking, so that should be enough to satisfy a grand jury. If I were the judge I remand them into custody without bail until a trial date could be set.
Captain C
@MarkJ: I was just going to write the same thing; I’d love to see the Planned Parenthood staff stall them while contacting a friendly cop, who proceeds to show up and arrest the f*ckers for underage sex trafficking, including taking them down to the county jail where they’re processed and tossed into a holding cell until their court date. Then they can either admit to being utter fraudsters (and get busted for any pertinent charges) or take the rap for child sex exploitation and go to prison (where they’d probably have to be kept in solitary).