Afternoon Roundup: Media Matters Calls Live Action Video on PP a “Hoax”

A new study on abortion and male partners of women who access abortion; more on the video hoax perpetrated against Planned Parenthood; Iowa House passes same sex marriage ban; ane more.

A new study on abortion and male partners of women who access abortion; more on the video hoax perpetrated against Planned Parenthood; Iowa House passes same sex marriage ban; ane more.

  • H/T to Exhale: The Guttmacher Institute released a new study, by Rachel K. Jones, which finds that, “The overwhelming majority of women obtaining abortions in the United States (82%) report that the men by whom they got pregnant knew about the abortion, and nearly eight in 10 perceived these men to be supportive.” Read the release and the study. 
  • Time magazine’s blog, Swampland, reports on Rep. Chris Smith’s horrific H.R. 3 bill (“No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion”) and its weasely attempt to re-define rape as an assault which is “forcible” (?). Swampland’s Amy Sullivan wonders just how legislators decided that what this country really needs is to crack down on those women who “use” rape to justify Medicaid paying for their abortions. Sullivan also looks at just how difficult it is for women who are raped and become pregnant to access Medicaid funds for an abortion. 

Is Live Action accurately portraying the Planned Parenthood employee’s statements and actions? It’s impossible to say for sure without the full video, but there is good reason for media to be skeptical. Lila Rose, after all, began infiltrating abortion clinics in collaboration with James O’Keefe — a convicted criminal who repeatedly lied about his heavily edited ACORN videos. Rose herself has a history of smearing the subjects of her videos.

But even if Live Action’s video doesn’t take the employee out of context, the incident obviously doesn’t show Planned Parenthood covering up child sex trafficking. That’s because Planned Parenthood has already reported the “potential sex trafficking” to law enforcement officials.

  • Karl Hoffman, President and CEO of PSI, a global health organization focusing on reproductive health, malara, HIV and more, offers his critique on the Huffington Post of the recently wrapped World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The annual event brings together politicians, business leaders, non-profit and governmental leaders and others in a global conversation. But Karl Hoffman said a critical component of world issues, particularly around the Millennium Development Goals, was missing: the “crushing challenge of demographics in many developing countries” and, in essence, the lack of a discussion on family planning resources for women and their families. 
  • The Iowa House passed a constitutional ban on same sex marriage today, House Joint Resolution 6, with one lawmaker saying that marriage is about “responsible procreation” (watch out all you married-without-children couples!) adding, “We wouldn’t recognize incestuous relationships between two consenting adult brothers and sisters. That raises up within us disgust, and we can’t accept that. We draw lines. We define marriage.”