Lila Rose – an activist who schooled with James O'Keefe in the art of deceptive editing and other dishonest manipulation of undercover footage in service of rightwing aims – has been around a long time. Unlike her colleague O'Keefe, however, Rose has only one target: Planned Parenthood.
For years, she's been making videos with her company Live Action based on sneaking into Planned Parenthoods and trying to entrap the employees by passing herself off as a minor impregnated by an older man, in the hope of catching them doing something illegal. Her videos usually don't do much more than titillate her anti-choice audiences, but this month, unfortunately, she's been able to catch mainstream media attention. Much of the time, there's evidence that her videos have been doctored.
The reason for all the media attention has nothing to do with the actual content of her latest round of videos, for which she borrowed her friend James O'Keefe's act of having actors hint at being pimps and prostitutes to non-profit workers, and then editing the videos to make it seem there was more cooperation from staff than there was. The reason has everything to do with Representative Mike Pence's push to defund Planned Parenthood, and these videos providing a pretext to increase hysteria around the venerable organisation, with the aim of repeating what happened to the community-organising association Acorn, which was defunded after an O'Keefe video sting operation. But this time, the flagrant deception behind the tactic is well-known, creating hope that this rightwing campaign will fail to get traction.
Rose's objective here was to be able to accuse Planned Parenthood of not calling the authorities when alleged pimps admit to sex trafficking on Planned Parenthood premises. The problem for this accusation is that Planned Parenthood did contact the FBI and told them about a potential sex ring before the videos came out. Then, they contacted the media, so there would be no confusion about this. But since an accurate account of the facts has never been an obstacle to Rose, she released the videos and made the claim anyway, failing to note, of course, in the videos that the authorities had, in fact, been informed – in direct contradiction of her claims.
In only one video, the one filmed in New Jersey, do you see any illegal activity from an employee, despite misleading editing to imply otherwise. And even in the video where an employee breaks the rules, she does so explicitly because, in her own words, other employees are good at their jobs and follow the rules. That employee was summarily fired. In all the other videos, you see one employee after another giving legally and medically accurate information when asked, and they repeatedly ask that any young women requiring help come in to deal directly with healthcare workers. And then, after the man posing as a pimp left, they alerted the authorities.
Rose's attempt to skirt the big lie in her videos would be comical if it weren't so vicious. She has complained that they did contact the authorities, even though she started out with the intention to complain that they didn't. She also tried to muddy the issue by suggesting that simply calling the police isn't enough, but that ordinary healthcare workers should perform a citizen's arrest when they hear someone admit to illegal activity. (A nurse friend of mine joked that she missed the day in nursing school where they taught you to draw your gun and handcuffs to detain a potentially violent pimp.) Really, though, Rose can't get around the fact that Planned Parenthood did exactly what she set out to claim they don't.
The videos are fascinating not for what's actually in them, but for what the actors' script and the editing tell us about the assumptions of Live Action and their intended audience of easily impressed social conservatives. The videos are stuffed with false assumptions about the rights of minors and the realities of reproductive healthcare. In fact, unless you start from the assumption that STD testing, contraceptio, and abortion aren't real medical care, then why all but the New Jersey video should scandalise does not seem apparent at all.
Lila Rose has been open about her belief that women "caught" being sexually active should lose the right to medical privacy enshrined in both ethics and law, and in fact, she has argued that abortions should be performed in the "public square", presumably in stocks so that an audience with buckles on their shoes can throw vegetables at the slut witch in their midst. Perhaps scarlet letters should also be assigned if women fail routine hymen examinations, as well, just to be careful and make sure no one's left out.
Rose's belief is echoed throughout the videos. The actors repeatedly verify that they have the right to confidentiality, and the sometimes exasperated workers assure them that yes, what you tell a doctor or a nurse is confidential. Yes, even minors, people who don't speak English, and self-confessed sex workers. Audience members are clearly supposed to be outraged at this – who gives such people rights?! – but, of course, the employees are in the right. Excepting a few situations where reporting is mandatory (and in those situations, Planned Parenthood did the requisite reporting), it is actually illegal for healthcare workers to violate confidentiality.
In other words, Lila Rose is denigrating Planned Parenthood for following the law. Fox News and, sadly, some mainstream media news sources are playing along, vilifying Planned Parenthood for following ethical and legal guidelines by giving out accurate information, assuring confidentiality within the parameters laid down by the federal government, and swiftly alerting the authorities according to reporting requirements.
It seems that if you're considered "liberal" nowadays, you are wrong if you break the law or if you follow the law. There is literally nothing you can do that isn't a horrible scandal. Providing healthcare to sexually active women is Planned Parenthood's real crime in the eyes of Lila Rose and her enablers. Everything they throw up to rationalise their pique is just noise.