Planned Parenthood Videos Shock VA Governor, Attorney General

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 7, 2011   |   11:41AM   |   Richmond, VA

The governor and attorney general in Virginia are shocked by the video footage released last week by Live Action, which conducted undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood abortion clinics.

The sting operations revealed Planned Parenthood center staffers were willing to provide assistance to alleged operators of a sex trafficking ring — ranging from helping them arrange abortions for the underage girls they said they were victimizing to showing them how to avoid scrutiny and skirt parental involvement laws. The videos covered Planned Parenthood centers in Richmond and also other centers in Roanoke, Charlottesville, and Falls Church.

Live Action also filmed Planned Parenthood staff helping sex traffickers in New Jersey and the nurse who aided the alleged traffickers there has already been fired and the state health department is looking into the problems further.

Reacting to the videos, Gov. Bob McDonnell reportedly saw the footage and said he is “deeply troubled” by what he saw.

“The apparent actions of the clinic employee, if accurate, are alarming,” McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin told the Associated Press.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has already received the full, unedited footage of the Planned Parenthood expose’ videos and he told CBS 6 WVTR in Richmond that they are “shocking.”

“I find it shocking… I have seen the New Jersey video… It’s appalling that anyone so blithely would talk about the sex trafficking of minors. and be willing to lie to help accomplish it. and everything else. It’s just astonishing,” he said.

Later, asked on Fox News about the videos, Cuccinelli said he is particularly concerned that abortion centers are aiding and abetting the sex trafficking industry.

“Well certainly we take an interest any time you see an expression like you do in these tapes of a willingness to support sex trafficking of minors. What you don’t have is an actual case of it on film but what you do have is clearly an open willingness of several organizations meaning subsidiaries of Planned Parenthood nationally in the same category, sex trafficking of minors, and an open willingness to participate in this,” he said. “And, this is at a time that we are trying to deal with human trafficking.”

“For a few years we have been trying to figure how to get at it. And, when you see something like this you can see how it can flourish. There are institutions already in place in Virginia and across America, Planned Parenthood in this case, who are happily willing to aid and abet that sort of effort,” the state attorney general added.

Lila Rose, the president of Live Action Films, has responded to the videos this way:  “Planned Parenthood claims that they made reports. But that was only after, and they say this themselves, they became suspicious that it was Live Action doing the investigation. What we have documented …  is across the board. We have been documenting this for years now. They cover up- institutionally, Planned Parenthood is covering up the sexual abuse of minors and now it goes as far as aiding and abetting a prostitution ring.”