Planned Parenthood seeks FBI probe against Live Action

Lila Rose and Live Action have ruffled the feathers of Planned Parenthood so much that they are seeking an FBI probe against a man that allegedly, by PP's own contention, works for Live Action. The Associated Press has an exclusive on the story, and we are trying to bring a little balance to the equation.

Bryan Howard
President and CEO of 
Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc. 
AP Photo(Ross D. Franklin)

Here is what the AP is reporting:

Planned Parenthood, a perennial protest target because of its role in providing abortions, has notified the FBI that at least 12 of its health centers were visited recently by a man purporting to be a sex trafficker but who may instead be part of an attempted ruse to entrap clinic employees.

In each case, according to Planned Parenthood, the man sought to speak privately with a clinic employee and then requested information about health services for sex workers, including some who he said were minors and in the U.S. illegally.

Planned Parenthood's vice president for communications, Stuart Schear, said the organization has requested an FBI probe of the man's claims and has already fielded some initial FBI inquiries. However, Schear said Planned Parenthood's own investigation indicates that the man has links with Live Action, an anti-abortion group that has conducted previous undercover projects aimed at discrediting the nation's leading abortion provider.

Lila Rose - Live Action

What is really interesting is that the article claims that PP has launched its own investigation. Is it just me, or is it a little creepy that an alleged "women's health group" is not only doing some sort of quasi-criminal investigation but that they are even capable of doing so? Yet, in the midst of all of this Lila Rose and Live Action aren't backing down.

Lila Rose, Live Action's founder and president, described Planned Parenthood's assertion as "very interesting." She declined to confirm or deny that the clinic visits were part of a Live Action operation, but did indicate in a telephone interview that an undercover videotape project of some sort was in the works.

"The story that speaks loudest will be in the evidence," she said. "I can't comment until we release the visual evidence."

 It will be interesting to see what comes of all of this. In the end, Planned Parenthood might be biting off more than they can chew. If indeed the man is part of a Pro-Life group, and he gathered some incriminating information - PP brought the law upon themselves. The Post tried to paint this as PP being a victim, but a PP spokesman showed how obtuse their thinking is:

Schear said he and his colleagues found it striking that the clinic in Tucson was among those visited, so soon after the shooting rampage. "It shows how far some people will go," he said.

Bryan Howard, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Arizona, said staff at the clinics in Tucson and Scottsdale were in a state of vigilance when the visitor showed up on Jan. 15, because of alerts that had come from affiliates in the East about suspicious visits earlier that week. Also, Arizona clinics had been the target of a Live Action operation in the past.

"So there's a high degree of awareness here," Howard said. "When someone walks through the door, it is possible they're not there for the reason they say they are."

To them this is completely political. It isn't about women's health, it isn't about babies, or abortion. This is about an agenda. This is about their pride being hurt from the previous under-cover Live Action exposés and trying to get back at them for that. To invoke the Tucson shooting spree that left several dead and many injured, as some sort of tie-in to this shows that Planned Parenthood has political and rhetorical reasoning behind what they are doing.

We will try and keep up to date on this to see what develops...

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