Yet Another Right Wing Hit Job on Planned Parenthood
The far right religious fanatics of “Live Action” are pushing yet another “hidden camera” hit job on Planned Parenthood today, a hit job so obvious and inept that Planned Parenthood caught on to Live Action’s sneaky activities more than a month ago.
This time, the heavily edited video is supposed to be proof that Planned Parenthood encourages women to abort female fetuses: Terribly Dumb Sting Operation Claims It Captures Planned Parenthood Endorsing Sex-Selective Abortion.
Erin Gloria Ryan of jezebel.com points out that Live Action leader Lila Rose (who has called for abortions to be “done in the public square” and thinks Planned Parenthood is in league with Satan the Evil One) is simply lying again.
Lila Rose, Live Action’s leader who is terrified of sluts, told The Daily Caller that this is just a tiny thread in a giant fetus sweater that she’s about to unravel.
First of all, the statistics and studies indicate that we are adding to the growing problem across the world of sex-selective targeting of unborn girls for abortion. We are going to be demonstrating - starting with this video from Texas - that the abortion industry in the United States is aiding and abetting this horrific problem.
Sounds pretty legit, right? Except it appears that Rose performed a complicated and risky fact-selective abortion in making that statement — it’s pure, steaming bullshit.
Statistics do not indicate that the US has a problem with sex-selective abortions, nor do they indicate an increasing gender discrepancy in the American birth rate. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the sex ratio — the number of baby boys born per 1,000 baby girls — has actually been decreasing slightly but steadily over the last 30 years. In 1983, 1,052 boys were born for every 1,000 girls born in the US; in 2009, 1,048 boys were born for every 1,000 girls. This is only indicative of a “growing problem” if by “growing problem,” Rose means “growing anti-abortion rights talking point.”
Further, so few abortions in the US occur after the 20th week that even if every single one of them were the result of sex-selection, only 1.5% of pregnancy terminations would occur at a time when sex selection was even possible. Additionally, 77% of Americans surveyed think that sex selective abortion is wrong — they’re hardly clamoring to abort in the 23rd week because they want a Jr instead of an -ette.
And finally, as Planned Parenthood pointed out in its statement following the release of this video, even if sex-selective abortion were a problem in the US, interfering with women’s access to safe, legal abortion isn’t going to fix anything — leading health organizations “do not believe that curtailing access to abortion services is a legitimate means of addressing sex selection, and are clear that gender bias can only be resolved by addressing the underlying conditions that lead to it.”
If these fanatical anti-choice loons are so sure they have God on their side, and their cause is so righteous, why do they lie so often?
Of course, all the right wing blogs jumped right into line and started helping promote Live Action’s scam, because it’s what they do. One example of many: Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, who does that wingnut inverted projection thing again, and dubs this the “real war on women.”