Thursday Live Action released a much-touted "gendercide" video that tried to paint Planned Parenthood as an organization that encourages women to "kill girls." The video was released on the same day the House of Representatives voted on a bill that would ban sex-selective abortion. Democrats defeated the Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act in the House of Representatives on Thursday. But a closer look at the full video, released on Live Action's YouTube page, suggests that the 7-minute edited video leaves out key context that emphasizes the woman's choice in handling her pregnancy, according to Media Matters' analysis.
Listening to the full video, the first half hour of which is the Live Action operative sitting in the waiting room noshing on foil-wrapped food, the alleged Planned Parenthood employee begins by asking the woman from Live Action, "And have you decided that you -- you know, have you definitely decided that you would like to terminate your pregnancy?"
It is at this point that the Live Action activist discloses her preference she and her husband have for a girl, even mentioning that she's previously had a "medical abortion" after her daughter was born. The activist explains she's "pretty sure" her fetus is another girl because of an over-the-counter test she'd taken. At this point, the employee then notes that she is a "social worker and not a medical provider" and says that she is unfamiliar with the test the Live Action activist described.
The Live Action operative then asks if an OBGYN who conducts a medical test to confirm the sex of the fetus will "judge" her if she then terminates her pregnancy if it is a girl, the employee responds, "Well, It's really your decision. I can't tell you that someone is going to judge you or not. I don't know. I can't speak for anybody else in how they practice or what they do. It is your decision and you don't need a doctor or an OBGYN's permission to decide what you and your husband feel like is best for you and your family. If you decide that even if it's a girl that you want to terminate the pregnancy, that's your decision and it's nobody else's."
She goes on to ask the Live Action activist if "adoption something that you were interested in considering?"
When the activist reiterates her and her husband's desire to terminate a pregnancy, and asked whether Planned Parenthood employees would judge her if she kept aborting girls, the employee, after a lengthy pause, follows up with a statement that did make it into the edited video, "It’s not up to us to decide what is a good or bad reason for somebody to decide to terminate a pregnancy."
In response to the sex-selective abortion ban Thursday, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards said in a press release, "We oppose sex selection abortion. But this bill does nothing to advance protections against discrimination and instead will have the result of further shaming and stigmatizing women."
Watch the full video, uploaded by Live Action on May 31:
[Screen shot via Live Action YouTube video]
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