A watchdog group has asked the California attorney general to investigate whether the anti-choice group that posed as a non-existent medical research entity violated California law "by making false or misleading solicitations for charitable donations."
Just as much as these videos are part of a highly orchestrated campaign to discredit Planned Parenthood, they were also part of an ongoing campaign to target and harass individual abortion providers and others connected with the safe and legal provision of abortion care.
The secretive anti-choice organization Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released a second undercover video Tuesday. The group claims that the footage shows a Planned Parenthood official “haggling” over the price of fetal tissue.
Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), for example, was not "chilled" enough by the video to do anything about it when he first saw it at least a month earlier than it was released to the public, as he admitted to Roll Call.
Operatives from the sham company Center for Medical Progress, set up under questionable circumstances specifically to attack Planned Parenthood, appear to have used alcohol as a means toward getting providers to talk more freely.
On this episode of Reality Cast, host Amanda Marcotte digs into the furor over the hoax video accusing Planned Parenthood of selling fetal tissue, and is joined by Hannah Groch-Begley of Media Matters, who analyzes how that video lied.
The phrases being thrown around by conservative legislators and organizations aren't medical terms. They're intentionally deceptive bits of propaganda, and they create an anti-choice political frame for conversations about abortion care that are not rooted in sound science and medicine.
The face behind the heavily edited, misleading video purporting to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells human tissue is fresh and young; it belongs to 26-year-old David Daleiden.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said this week that he does not believe abortion is a personal decision, once again shifting away from his previous, more nuanced stance on abortion.
