While many in the media stay silent on a new report accusing the nation’s largest abortion provider of enabling abuse, members of Congress aren’t.
On Thursday, pro-life group Live Action held a Washington, D.C. press conference with several members of Congress. The event responded to a new investigative report by Live Action that accused Planned Parenthood of covering up child sex abuse in the #MeToo era. During the event, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J, asked “every member of the press” to watch the docuseries connected to the report.
In those videos, Live Action focuses on recorded cases of abuse, former abortion worker testimonies, statutory rape, and sex trafficking – including information from former Live Action investigations.
As co-chair of the congressional pro-life caucus, Rep. Smith thanked Live Action for its “enormous public service” and report which “documents several instances in which Planned Parenthood has failed to report sexual abuse of children.”
He criticized Planned Parenthood’s “complicity in sex trafficking” as “absolutely appalling.” Later on, he stressed “absolutely appalling” again – and delivered a message to the media.
“I encourage every member of the press to watch those videos,” he said. “It will make you ill.”
Live Action’s new “Aiding Abusers” campaign, which includes the new report, documents court cases from across the country regarding child abuse.
“Planned Parenthood, required by law to report suspected abuse, has ignored victims’ pleas for help, performed abortions on victims as young as 12 years old, and returned them back to their abusers,” the campaign website warned. “Planned Parenthood’s negligence is enabling abuse and aiding abusers.”
Among other things, the campaign asks the Health and Human Services Department to “investigate whether other violations have been covered up at its Title X facilities.” This comes shortly after President Trump announced a proposal to prohibit Title X federal funding from organizations that provide or refer abortion.
Also at the event, Susan B. Anthony List government affairs vice president Marilyn Musgrave echoed Rep. Smith, saying, “You wonder why the media does not pay attention to this.”
My district in Colorado was rural, a great part of it, and there farming facilities, there were hog farms, and dairies,” she said. “And I wonder what would happen if somebody did undercover work and saw animals being abused.”
She knew: “Believe me, it would have been in the news. It would have been a story.”
According to Planned Parenthood’s most recently published annual report, the organization performed 321,384 abortions and received $543.7 million in “government health services, reimbursements & grants” for the year 2016-2017.
Besides Rep. Smith and Musgrave, Live Action president Lila Rose, Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and State Department former senior advisor Laura Lederer spoke at the event.
