Ken Berwitz
Does Planned Parenthood really want this fight?
Planned Parenthood filed a racketeering lawsuit against anti-abortion activist DavidDaleiden and his Center for Medical Progress group on Thursday, calling thegroup “a complex criminal enterprise conceived and executed by anti-abortionextremists.”
In July, the CMPbegan releasing edited videos ofconversations with Planned Parenthood doctors, secretly recorded byanti-abortion activists posing as medical tissue firm officials. The videosclaimed they exposed illegal sales of fetal tissues by Planned Parenthood to atissue bank called Stem Express, as well as illegal abortion procedures.
Planned Parenthooddenied the claims, which sparked Congressional hearings and investigations in10 states, and released a report calling the videos deceptive. Now the women\’shealth organization, which performs about one-third of all abortionsnationwide, is filing suit in the Northern California federal district againstthe CMP.
Do the movers and shakers at Planned Parenthood understand what they are letting themselves in for?
Let\’s start with the fact that a suit like this, if pushed long enough to find its way into a courtroom, is going to cost a lot of legal fees. Planned Parenthood (PP) certainly knows this. And as the recipient of over a half BILLION dollars in federal tax money last year alone, it won\’t have much of problem coming up with the money.
Maybe PP figures that David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) will wilt under this financial pressure.
But here\’s a reality check: there is a ton of pro-life sentiment in this country…with enough individuals and organizations champing at the bit for a court case where they can engage PP over its activities, to insure that CMP will be fully funded from beginning to end.
Now: what happens if this case goes to court?
The first thing to point out is that it will not be buried by mainstream media. It can\’t be, especially since PP was the driving force behind the case.
The same mainstream media which diligently buried CMP\’s side of the story as well as the actual content of its videos – instead, reporting only PP\’s side of things – won\’t be able to do that during a court trial. And this case will not just generate media coverage, it will generate A TON of media coverage.
Of course, if Planned Parenthood\’s premise – that CMP is a bunch of extremist crackpots with nothing to offer – is true, this will be great for the organization.
But is it? Will it?
Tell me what happens when the videos are played in court – and, therefore, when mainstream media finally have to report about what is on them?
What happens when people find out about the PP executives calmly munching on their lunch while discussing, among other things, the best way to abort babies so that they can be torn into pieces, with their various organs intact and available for sale at a negotiated price?
Notice that I did not say aborted fetuses, I said aborted babies. That is because the CMP lawyers will be sure to point out that the only way you can possibly get intact body organs is from a formed baby.
See, Planned Parenthood has managed to convince a great many people in this country that its abortion procedures involve the removal of lifeless, shapeless lumps of fetal tissue. How do you think those people will react when it becomes clear that the “lifeless, shapeless lumps” have heads arms, legs, brains, lungs, hearts and livers – in short, they are…. formed babies. Do you figure this is going to generate positive or negative sentiment for PP?
Then there is PP\’s claim that the videos were heavily edited – the implication being that their executives\’ words have either been doctored or, at the very least, taken out of context. What happens when the videos – the full videos – show that this is not true; that what CMP claims the Planned Parenthood people said is exactly what they DID say?
Planned Parenthood\’s “brain trust” apparently thinks this is a great idea. It must, since they are the ones pushing for a court case.
My advice to the brainiacs who came up with this idea: be careful what you wish for, you just may get it…and the outcome just may be very different than what you expect.
