We are on week three of what has been hinted at being a 12 week long media blitz attacking Planned Parenthood, and GOP politicians have been responding beautifully to the prompts provided to them by the anti-abortion movement. What has in the past simply been an annual (failed) push to defund the reproductive health care provider has instead turned into a frenzy of investigations across the country, led by some of the most anti-abortion, anti-birth control legislators in the country.
As the anti-abortion group “Center for Medical Progress” releases yet another new (and this time graphic) Youtube video, attacks on Planned Parenthood (and even independent abortion providers, too) continue. Here are just four of the latest ways the anti-abortion movement hopes to close them for good.
1.) Arrest Some Doctors
Some politicians are so completely convinced that what they see in the videos is illegal, they are already calling for the police to step in and throw providers in jail. “Top Republicans in Oklahoma are launching a campaign to boot Planned Parenthood from their state and shut down the abortion industry’s leading player, arresting its doctors,” reports WND.com, a rightwing news site. But Randy Brogan, the Oklahoma GOP chairman, is going beyond caring if tissue was donated or sold, and instead believes that the state should ignore Roe v. Wade and arrest doctors for performing abortions in the first place. “‘As Chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, I call on the Governor and legislators to completely end the practice of abortion in Oklahoma,’ Brogdon wrote in the email, adding that the state should ‘[s]hut Planned Parenthood down immediately for their illegal actions, and prosecute the abortion doctors who violate their oath to ‘do no harm.'” Side note: Planned Parenthood doesn’t perform abortions in the state of Oklahoma.
2.) Hack Their Websites
At first it sounded like a total scam, but allegedly one or more abortion opponent claims he or she “hacked” the Planned Parenthood website and got access to employee data. “Anti-abortion activists have hacked Planned Parenthood’s website, gaining access to its online database and employee information, according to the group,” reports the Christian Science Monitor. “The organization has turned to the FBI and the Department of Justice for help with its cybersecurity issues. Meanwhile, the hackers, self-proclaimed ‘social justice warriors’ are threatening to release the company’s internal emails, the Daily Dot reported.” Planned Parenthood hasn’t been able to confirm their claims, but says if it is true it could put employees at risk of harassment or worse.
3.) Get Them Out of Schools
From Kansas to Arizona, a number of states already blocked Planned Parenthood workers (or even volunteers) from being able to offer sex ed or other resources to local schools, but now there is a push to get them out of all of the states. “Valerie Huber, president and CEO of the National Abstinence Education Association, told EAG the shocking footage, the second clip of which was released Tuesday, could convince parents not to allow the group to teach their children about the birds and the bees,” reports FoxNews.com. “‘We have long advocated that any group that normalizes or encourages teen sexual activity should not have access to students,’ Huber said. ‘That applies to (Planned Parenthood) and other groups, so this new revelation does not change our stance. (But) it strengthened our antipathy to their fitness as role models for our youth. Regardless of one’s stance on abortion, this footage creates a visceral reaction to our sensibilities and humanity.'”
4.) Ban “Remains”
As someone who has actually read all the transcripts from the first two videos, the thing that stuck out the most to me was the point in which Dr. Nucolata suggested to the biofirm that if they would simply offer to take clinic’s bio remains – all of them – the clinics would be more than happy to let them keep whatever tissue was usable, because they have such a difficult time disposing of it. They then began to discuss the problems of disposing of products of conception, from finding firms who are willing to an inability to dispose on their own because of regulations. Now, Americans United for Life is hoping to leverage that crisis by creating a model bill that will make it even more difficult to dispose of remains, hoping that clinics will then be forced to stop doing abortions all together. “[Dan]McConchie, of the AUL, told the Guardian the group had drafted a model ‘Dignified Final Disposition Act’ and was tweaking it in response to the clandestine videos. ‘We’re working with legislators. There’s a lot of interest,'” reports the Guardian. “The proposed law would mandate that fetal remains be cremated or buried. If cremated, they would have to be cremated separately from medical waste and a county medical examiner would have to authorise the cremation.”
Three weeks, four new tactics. And just think, we still have weeks to go.
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