In a weekend interview with a local television station in Virginia, President Barack Obama was forced to answer a question concerning the national scandal surrounding Planned Parenthood.
The scandal has Planned Parenthood centers in Virginia and three other places — New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia — actively helping to arrange for abortions and STD testing for undercover investigators who pose as operators of a sex trafficking ring. The Planned Parenthood staff not only show no concern about he illegal and anti-woman activities, they help the sex trafficking operators avoid further scrutiny and give them advice for how to get the girls back out on the street.
“There’s a conservative group that went into Planned Parenthood with video cameras and taped what appeared to be Planned Parenthood workers turning a blind eye to sex trafficking,” the NBC 12 interviewer began in the late Friday interview. “Republicans here in Washington have turned this into a call for you and for other leaders in Washington to strip Planned Parenthood’s funding from the federal government. Do you think this video should be a reason to look at Planned Parenthood funding? Do you think it’s a setup? How would you react to that?”
Obama responded initially by trying to deflect the issue from Planned Parenthood to the economy:
“Well, you know, I will tell you, um, the vast majority of people right now, uh, what they’re thinking about are jobs, the economy, um, and I think that sometimes these issues get manufactured and they a lot of attention on the blogosphere. But what folks that I talk to have been asking is: How is the economy going to be doing? Are jobs going to be created? Are businesses going to be located here in the United States?”
Eventually, Obama got around to responding directly to the question:
“So, you know, my bottom line is, that uh, I think that Planned Parenthood in the past has done good work. If there was a specific problem at this center, it should be addressed,” Obama continued.
Then the president retreated back to other issues to close his answer: “But we shouldn’t get so distracted with some of these issues that we ignore what really determines how well our kids do in the future. Are we educating them properly? Are we investing in research and development and science and technology to keep our cutting edge? Are we dealing with our budget in a serious way and reducing spending? If we do those things, then some of these other issues are going to be addressed at the local level, but I’m pretty confident that we can address them.”
Jill Stanek, a pro-life nurse and blogger, noticed the interview and says it is revealing — for both what Obama said and what he didn’t. That the sex trafficking scandals has made its way to the presidential level shows how much of an impact the Live Action expose’ videos have made.
“The first bit of news to glean from Obama’s response is he was fully aware of the scandal,” she said. “Obama tried to minimize the sex trafficking sting as “manufactured” and only getting attention on the “blogosphere,” both claims of which are patently false. His own Department of Justice is now involved , after all, and the videos were repeatedly cited in GOP House testimony last week about an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, which passed.”
“But Obama did nothing to reassure Planned Parenthood beyond that,” Stanek added. “In fact, he only distanced himself from the sex trafficking sanctuary. Obama first noted that any ‘specific problem… should be addressed.’ Slap.”
Stanek found it “intriguing” that Obama said Planned Parenthood has done good work “in the past” and that he would have used the present tense if he truly believed the abortion business is engaged in good work.
“But he didn’t,” she said. “Obama proceeded to tick off what he considered real problems, none of which had anything to do with Planned Parenthood and some of which were even contrary to Planned Parenthood’s mission of killing every child it can get paid to kill. Then came the pièce de résistance: ‘Are we dealing with our budget in a serious way and reducing spending?’ Wouldn’t that be making the GOP’s case to defund?”
Thomas Peters, a pro-life Catholic activist who writes at American Papist, comes to the same conclusion about the Obama response.
“Obama does his best to avoid the question altogether by saying no one really cares about the issue (which is ludicrous), but what is truly notable in his response is how little he troubles himself to come to Planned Parenthood’s defense,” he said. “Some payback for all the work Planned Parenthood put into getting Obama elected, and all their efforts towards helping him pass his health care legislation. On second thought, maybe that was the “good work” Planned Parenthood has done “in the past” that the President was referencing.”
“At any rate, it should tell us just how vulnerable Planned Parenthood is right now, when the President – who up to this point has been their constant and fierce defender – now judges it best to abandon them at their ‘hour of need,'” he said.
Since February 1, 2011, Live Action has released footage from New Jersey, Virginia, and New York Planned Parenthood clinics, all of which have been met by an ever-changing defense from Planned Parenthood.
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 centersin Roanoke, Charlottesville, and Falls Church. A District of Columbia Planned Parenthood also encouraged and assisted sexual traffickers, as evidenced in an undercover audio file.
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 while the state health department is looking into the problems further.
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.”
Live Action has previously released more than a dozen hidden camera videos from ten states. This body of visual evidence shows several alarming patterns of illegal Planned Parenthood activities including cover-up of sexual abuse of minors, the skirting of parental consent laws, citing unscientific and fabricated medical information to manipulate women to have abortions, and Planned Parenthood’s willingness to accept donations earmarked to abort African-American babies.
