Lila Rose: big time liar and all-around horrible person

I hope this isn't boring you guys, but I need to do some more blogging on the Live Action/Lila Rose situation. As I've noted before, Rose knows and works with James O'Keefe, and she shares his belief that deceptive editing and outright lying are acceptable means to their ends. The chance that deceptive editing isn't in play with these Planned Parenthood videos was nearly nil; these come from the same group of people who edited Shirley Sherrod to be saying something the opposite of what she was saying, and edited videos to make it seem like ACORN was doing stuff it wasn't. (For instance, O'Keefe edited a video to make a worker who was suggesting that a trafficked woman hide money from her pimp so she could escape look like she was saying she should hide money from the IRS.) Rose has been known to engage in deceptive editing before, and as I noted, she reneged on her agreement to debate me when I made it clear that she wouldn't have a chance to edit it to make it seem like I said things I didn't.

Now the evidence is in. We know that Rose deceptively edited at least one of the videos she's released, changing the audio around to make it sound like a Planned Parenthood employee is saying something she didn't say. Ironically, even in the edited video, the employee isn't saying anything wrong, but in the full length video, it's even more clear that the employee didn't address judicial bypass until all other explanations had been exhausted. This matters, because the narrative on Fox News---echoed by a concern troll who is pretty clearly lying about his own views on this site---is that it's somehow wrong to inform teenagers of their legal right to judicial bypass. Not only is it not wrong to inform patients of all their rights, it's the moral and often legal duty of medical professionals to do so, as explained by Media Matters:

ABC: "Legal Experts" Said Worker's Advice "Is Consistent With State Law." A February 4 ABC article about the second Live Action video stated that "unlike the first video, the Richmond clinic worker appears to act professionally and appropriately." The article further explained that "the clinic worker's advice on how a minor could obtain an abortion without her parents' consent is consistent with state law." A lawyer interviewed for the article noted, "It would be ethically required of a health worker to notify a minor seeking an abortion of her right to a process known as 'judicial bypass,'" because it is "a clearly recognized constitutional right of minors to seek a judge's approval without their parents knowing."

Fox is trying very hard to get their viewers to believe the word "bypass" means to circumvent the law. In fact, they state so boldly. But this is a pure, unadulterated lie. Judicial bypass is a legal right established by the Supreme Court. It was put there because the language of Roe v Wade makes it clear that abortion restrictions cannot be there to harm women seeking abortion, and young women therefore have to be able to make the case that informing their parents would cause harm to them. I'm sure you can see how that could happen, and if not, you're being deliberately obtuse.

Of course, the video has another lie implied, because Rose doesn't inform her audience---nor are they informing the audience in most cases on Fox News---that the Planned Parenthood employee in this tape immediately informed the proper authorities after the hoaxers left the clinic.

Lila Rose's attempt to defend her lying ass in this particular instance reveals exactly what kind of person we're dealing with here:

“It is utterly disgusting that Planned Parenthood’s response to this is that their employee reacted ‘professionally,’” said Live Action President Lila Rose. “The only acceptable response to encountering a self-identified sex-trafficker of underage girls is zero tolerance. The only ‘professional’ response is to immediately call law enforcement to the scene and push for an arrest.

I will point out that this was originally published on Jill Stanek's blog. This is important, because Stanek claims (falsely) that she witnessed killing of born babies in a Chicago hospital. She reported these claims after she claims they happened. Holy double standard, Batman! By her and Rose's measures, Stanek should have whipped out her handcuffs (which all citizens should have at all time on their bodies), arrested everyone involved, and called the police immediately. If you're going to expect that of everyone else, you have to do it yourself. Granted, unlike the employees at Planned Parenthood, if Stanek had called the police after the alleged baby-killing, she would have gone to jail for filing a false police report. Still, the point stands. In grown-up land, ordinary citizens do not make citizen's arrests simply because someone claims to have done something illegal. That's why we have the police, and they often don't appreciate it if you do their job for them, since you're probably going to do a shitty job of it. Rose's insistence that trying to detain a claimed pimp is the only proper response is fucked up beyond belief. Think about if he was a real pimp; if Planned Parenthood tried to do that, he would a) likely escape, b) likely physically assault and possibly kill someone in the office, and c) become a stone wall for information on the whereabouts of his slaves. Pimps are bad people who have no problem enacting violence, especially against women. That's how this works in grown-up land.

Make no mistake: Lila Rose is out to make sure that low income and young women are deprived access to decent health care, including and especially contraception and cancer screening, both of which are the majority of Planned Parenthood's work. And her claims that she's trying to expose how Planned Parenthood is "dangerous" is the biggest lie of all. She objects to Planned Parenthood because she objects to sexually active young women getting proper health care, especially if they're not privileged like she no doubt is to have a lot of money to obtain private health care.

My only real question is how is it that the conservative movement is pumping out so many young people that literally have no moral grounding, like Lila Rose and James O'Keefe? Why do these young people blithely assume that it's okay to lie to get your way, and that sadistic attacks on vulnerable people is a good way to spend your time? Where do such lowlifes come from?