Planned Parenthood claims that secretly recorded footage showing its affiliates discussing the harvesting of fetal organs is not what it looks like, and insists that the videos have been “selectively edited” by “anti-abortion extremists.”
Interestingly enough, and despite that the pro-life group responsible for the videos has made all of its unedited footage available online, certain corners of the press have appeared more than eager to repeat Planned Parenthood’s “selectively edited” defense.
“Perpetrator of Planned Parenthood hoax tells Hannity that many more (unethically edited) videos are in the works,” Salon declared in a none-too-subtle headline.
Not one to be outdone, Slate blared, “Second Heavily Edited Planned Parenthood Attack Video Is Also a Big Bust.”
“[A] little-known anti-abortion activist,” Mother Jones reported, “ignited a firestorm by releasing … selectively edited videos.”
To date, the Center for Medical Progress, the pro-life group responsible for Planned Parenthood’s current woes, has released four quick videos, each accompanied by several hours’ worth of original, uncut footage. The videos are the result of a three-year long investigation.
The New York Times has mostly ignored the story except to publish an editorial accusing the group behind the videos of waging a war against Planned Parenthood with heavily edited footage, and to publish a report suggesting that Republicans may try to use the scandal for political gain.
The always entertaining pro-Clinton activist group Media Matters for America characterized the videos as “deceptively-edited.”
The equally amusing ThinkProgress added to the “selectively edited” chorus this week, taking it a step further by claiming also that the entire issue is a “manufactured controversy.”
The sale of aborted fetal tissue for profit is illegal under federal law, and Planned Parenthood claims that it is only reimbursed for the costs incurred from salvaging and shipping select organs.
However, one surreptitiously recorded video shows Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services discussing doing “a little better than” breaking even for donating harvested organs.
A second video shows a Planned Parenthood executive negotiating compensation for specific fetal organs, including hearts, kidneys and livers, joking at one point, “It has been years since I talked about compensation [for fetal organs] … so let me just figure out what others are getting.”
“If this is in the ballpark, it’s fine. If it’s still low, then we can bump it up. I want a Lamborghini,” she said.
Other videos show Planned Parenthood affiliates apparently discussing performing partial birth abortions, which are illegal under federal law, so as to ensure specific organs are left intact.
With the release of every video, each running about 10 minutes long, the the Center for Medical Progress has also released hours of full, uncut footage. And along with the unedited footage, the group has also provided complete video transcripts.
Planned Parenthood has declined to explain what its senior director of medical services meant when she remarked on “doing a little better than” breaking even for donated fetal organs. It has also failed to address the full, unedited footage of its affiliates seemingly discussing performing partial birth abortions.
The nation’s largest provider of abortions hasn’t acknowledged whether it’s even aware that the full, unedited footage exists.
Yet, the “selectively edited” claim persists, both in media and in Congress.
“This is a new low, even for anti-abortion activists who will stop at nothing in their effort to undermine a woman’s right to choose,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said in a statement, taking aim directly at the producers of the secret videos.
“I believe the Center for Medical Progress may have broken the law in developing and executing this unbelievably elaborate and troubling scheme, and all Americans should have concerns about that,” she said, calling on lawmakers to consider prosecuting the pro-life group.
Schakowsky is joined by several top lawmakers in condemning the pro-life group’s many secret videos.
Even the Obama administration got in on the act this week when White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest claimed in a press briefing that the videos are merely propaganda from “extremists on the right.”
“There’s ample reason to think that this is merely the tried and true tactic that we have seen from some extremists on the right to edit this video and selectively release an edited version of the video that grossly distorts the position of the person who is actually speaking on the video,” Earnest said.
“And Planned Parenthood has indicated that’s what has occurred here,” he added.
