I have some conservative blogger/activist friends on myspace that I keep on my friends list for the sole purpose of seeing what the conservative movement is up to.
Lately, a lot of them have been posting bulletins with this video in them.
the video is titled:
"Undercover Camera Catches 2nd Indiana Planned Parenthood Breaking Sexual Abuse Reporting Laws"
Basically, the "undercover" 13 year old girl goes to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Indiana and asks to have an abortion. She mentions that the "boyfriend" that got her pregnant was a "lot older". She then tells another employee that her boyfriend is 31. The person then tells her to go to surrounding states.
Ok,I personally think that this video was staged in someone's basement.But if it was "real", I see absolutely nothing wrong with anything Planned Parenthood did. If they did "break the law", I mean come on. If that girl's situation had been a real one and her parents were not willing to sign the consent form she would have been forced to have a 31 year old's child! Even if the 31 year old was arrested, she would still have to raise the kid by herself and since he would be in prison he would not be able to help her! I find the Indiana anti-choice law for 13 year old girls outrageous!
So here are my questions/final thoughts:
1. Was this video staged in someone's basement?
2. Why does Indiana have such horrible laws that could potentially force a 13 year old girl to have a 31 year old man's child because her parents are pro-life?
3.What is the potential impact of "undercover" videos made by anti-choice organzitions?
4. Planned Parenthood volunteers and employees, what are your thoughts on this "undercover video"?
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Anti-Planned Parenthood Propaganda: "Going Undercover".
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/11062
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
My computer is being wonky, so I can't watch the video now, but judging by your description, I have two thoughts:
1) Does the Indiana law forbid the suggestion that a minor travel to another state?
2) How do the "undercover operatives" know the Planned Parenthood worker wasn't going to report the abuse after the 13 year old left?
3) If a police report had been filed, and it was revealed that Planned Parenthood had made this all up, wouldn't they be in trouble for faking a crime?
The video looks staged. There's nothing in that video that indicates this is being filmed at a Planned Parenthood. They only say that they're going to certain Planned Parenthoods, but they never show any PP logos on the door or any pro-choice posters on the walls. That could have been filmed anywhere.
According to the video, reports of abuse are supposed to be made immediately. That probably isn't the case. If it is, then most counselors would be breaking the law, since counselors usually talk about the accusations before reporting it. They will tell the client that they have to report the incident to police, or they may encourage the client to report the abuse in the presence of the counselor during the session. So they don't report it right that very second, but they will do so during the session or right after it. What the counselor can't do is tell the client that they will not report the incident and then report it once the client leaves (because that's lying, and lying to your client is not good). But the counselor may say "I have to report the incident" and make the report once the client leaves.
I think if a police report had been filed, PP wouldn't have gotten into trouble. Even if claims are unsubstantiated, it doesn't mean the report wasn't made in good faith. I guess it's sort of like calling child protective services because you think there is child abuse occurring, but it turns out that there was no abuse. The person who reported abuse doesn't get in trouble if they really did believe abuse was going on and weren't reporting it maliciously. So if PP reports what they thought was a crime, they don't get in trouble if it turns out there was no crime.
I suspect the previous poster meant wouldn't the people who staged the video be in trouble for faking a crime.
Oooooh. I would think so, but I don't know for sure. Police officers use sting operations all the time, but I don't think civilians are allowed to without the authorities knowing about it beforehand. I would hope that's the case, or else the investigation of fake crimes would waste a lot of time that police officers don't have.
I have read some more about this case, and it turns out that the video is real, since one PP employee was fired and the other suspended for the incident. The woman who made the video is actually 20 years old, which is strange, because whenever she says something, the transcript on the video says "13-year-old girl." Uh, no. A 20-year-old pretending to be 13 is not a 13-year-old girl. Now the case is being taken to the grand jury to see if a crime was committed, and the unedited video is being subpoenaed.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h469RgtsURucL38wYWgq-_ALul_AD955EUB00
I don't think they'd get in trouble as long as they came forward right away that it was fake. If they let the police spend time trying to investigate it first then they'd probably be in trouble.
But I don't actually know the laws on that.
I watched about half of it but I couldn't stand to watch all of becuase the recording quality is so bad. There's no way to tell if this video is real; it could very easily be staged. If they want this kind of thing taken seriously they need to have a chain of evidence, interviews with real people involved, etc.
I can't watch the video becuase I am at work, but I am pretty sure it is real. This was a big deal in the last year. If you go to google, and search "Indiana Planned Parenthood undercover video" you can read all of the articles and updates about it. Sorry I can't write more or post links, but hopefully that will help.
The only news stories I can find on this are from pro-life sites.
It's probably been fancily edited. When you report someone, you don't like call the police and have come down. All the reporting goes on behind closed doors out of the patient's view.