Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Sunday Globe Special: Planned Parenthood’s Public Relations Push

I don't know what is more abominable, the “profiteering from baby parts” or the birthing of this effort:

"Planned Parenthood works to reassure its political allies" by Jackie Calmes New York Times  September 26, 2015

WASHINGTON — The undercover videos were made over more than two years, yet Planned Parenthood was taken by surprise when the first one was posted online in July.

So was I.

Now one of the biggest crises in the 99-year history of the organization, the nation’s largest provider of women’s reproductive health care, could reach a conclusion this week as conservatives want to shut down the government rather than help fund the group.

Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, recalled that after an aide alerted her to the initial video by the little-known Center for Medical Progress, an antiabortion group, she thought: “This is not new” — Planned Parenthood had faced such tactics before — “but it’s a new low. And it is going to have reach.”

It sure is -- for them.

Immediately the organization was caught in a storm of internal confusion and defensiveness. There was disquiet among Democratic allies as Republicans, who control Congress and many state capitols, charged that the nonprofit organization was criminally “profiteering in baby parts.” A new video surfaced almost every Tuesday.

But Planned Parenthood has fought back and managed to put some opponents on the defensive after gathering information from its affiliates; hiring lawyers, crisis managers, and video experts to document deceptive edits; and working to solidify support among donors, Democrats, and, according to polls, a majority of Americans. 

The fact they defend the indu$try is all you need to know. 

Maybe there have been medical advances and maybe it's done some good, but at what price?

The nonprofit group has planned scores of Pink Out rallies nationwide on Tuesday. Supporters will travel by bus to Washington with a pro-Planned Parenthood petition bearing nearly 2 million signatures.

Looks like a Next Day Update coming tomorrow.

Chapters in about 23 cities will offer free tests for sexually transmitted infections to underscore the services — including contraceptives, cancer screening, and routine exams mainly for low-income clients — that Planned Parenthood provides more commonly than abortions.

About half of its nearly 700 clinics do not perform abortions, and federal law has long barred funding for most procedures.

Only a few affiliates in three West Coast states have arrangements with researchers to provide tissue from aborted fetuses or, in Oregon, fetal placentas. As doctors captured in the videos describe, fees of $30 to $100 a specimen cover costs rather than providing profits, which would be illegal.

As if that has ever stopped managers and those who profit before.

Many Republicans say the videos prove that Planned Parenthood is harvesting and selling baby parts. Greg Mueller, who heads a conservative communications firm working with the videos’ producer, said even some supporters of abortion rights were “repulsed.”

Because it is indefensible.

“No amount of spending or spin is going to change that,” he said.

Mueller cited findings from focus groups that were moderated last week in Denver by Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster. Conway, in an interview, did not dispute the accuracy of polls showing consistent support for Planned Parenthood and against defunding it.

All I can say is Americans have been brainwashed by the pro-abortion media and the "women's rights" groups. Sorry.

Underlying Planned Parenthood’s show of confidence, however, is concern that living under political threats is its new normal in a country that has become even more polarized in the wake of the videos. Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, must testify Tuesday before one of several congressional committees are investigating the group.

It means the false-flag, staged and scripted psyop fictions will never cease.

“We may be at a political crossroads where the right has a resurgence,” said Ellen Chesler, a former Planned Parenthood board member and biographer of Margaret Sanger, founder of the birth-control movement.

I hadn't planned on seeing her name.

“I think this is becoming more and more of a concern,” she added. “The politics is so totally unpredictable and unknowable.”

Certainly the politics were unpredictable when David Daleiden began releasing the videos he produced from recordings collected over 30 months of infiltrating clinics and tissue procurement companies. To gain trust, he formed a fake company and participated in professional conferences.

“Everyone was taken aback to discover just how extensive the operation had been,” said Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director under President Obama and a partner in SKDKnickerbocker, a consulting firm advising Planned Parenthood.

Dunn said Planned Parenthood had three immediate challenges: to answer the attack, to simultaneously query 67 affiliates about which ones had tissue programs or contacts with the abortion opponents, and to reassure supporters and political allies.

The group has relied almost solely on Democrats since abortion opponents gained sway over the Republican Party in the Reagan era. Its heft with Democrats flows from its grass-roots support and willingness to spend freely on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts.

Laguens of Planned Parenthood acknowledged the difficulty of quickly rebutting attacks even as her group was gathering facts. But, she added: “I’m 100 percent sure we are not trafficking in baby parts. So I didn’t have any hesitation, and Cecile didn’t have any hesitation.’’

Are you reassured?

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That isn't the issue unless they are admitting abortion is indeed just that.

RelatedPlanned Parenthood sues Utah after it cuts off federal money 

The real i$$ue, as always in early 21st-century AmeriKa.

Btw, did you know pregnancy can give you cancer?


Also seeDorchester man gets 15 years in federal sex trafficking case

Isn't he also in a gang?

NDUs:

"Planned Parenthood chief, GOP face off in Congress" by Michael D. Shear New York Times   September 30, 2015

WASHINGTON — The embattled president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, in testimony before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the videos were edited by the activists to mislead, and she insisted that Planned Parenthood facilitated the donation of only a small amount of fetal tissue and recoups only reasonable expenses as allowed by the law.

Honestly, we are awash in staged and scripted fiction, crisis drills presented as real and live, false flags galore, psyop mind manipulation (beginning with the pre$$ I read every day), war lies, hoaxes, and all the rest. 

“The latest smear campaign is based on efforts by our opponents to entrap our doctors and clinicians into breaking the law — and once again our opponents failed,” Richards said. 

Like the pregnancies?

The appearance by Richards before the House committee underscored a broader fight between the parties over Planned Parenthood as the clock ticks on a government shutdown that will begin Thursday if a stopgap spending bill cannot be passed. 

That's political show fooley.

While the funding fight is ostensibly about abortion and fetal tissue, the subtext is politics: Republicans perceive Planned Parenthood as a well-funded machine promoting Democratic candidates.

Once again, children are being waved at us.

Tuesday’s hearing quickly became contentious as Republican lawmakers assailed the group as more of a political advocacy organization that wastes federal money than a health care group that deserves to receive taxpayer dollars.

Representative Jim Jordan, Republican from Ohio, called the videos “barbaric and repulsive” and accused Planned Parenthood of what he called a “repulsive game” that included shifting government funding from Congress to Democratic politicians. He said lawmakers should shift federal money away from Planned Parenthood and to other health care priorities.

He then extolled against AIPAC contributions and influence (kicked back aid to Israel is what it is) as was promptly escorted out of the chamber -- and that is in now way a defense of abortion and the profiteering from it.

Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican from Utah and chairman of the committee, opened the hearing with a tearful commentary about the death of his mother to breast cancer, and the death of his father to cancer as well. 

Will he cry for the women and children of Yemen as well?

He said he felt strongly that federal money should be shifted away from Planned Parenthood so it could go to other health research.

He quickly moved to attack Planned Parenthood as a wasteful organization. He accused the group of spending millions on political activities, lavish parties, travel, and health care expenses overseas, and repeatedly noted that Richards earned an annual salary of more than $500,000.

Nice!

*******************

Richards and Democratic lawmakers came to the group’s defense, accusing the GOP lawmakers of using “highly edited videos” and misleading information to advance a political agenda. 

I call it a newspaper, and what of it?

Later, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat from New York, accused Chaffetz of “beating up on a woman, our witness, for making a good salary. Make no mistake: Despite what we hear, Republicans are doubling down on their war against women.”

Here we go again with the hyperbole and all. Divisive theater and a substantive issue, but time to move on.

She noted that Richards oversaw a large health care provider and said that she found Chaffetz’s comments about her salary “totally inappropriate and discriminatory.”

For her part, Richards repeatedly insisted that no federal money is used to pay for abortion services, and she said most of the federal funding to her organization — about $400 million per year — comes through Medicaid reimbursements for health care services provided to women.

Related: 

"The remains of a newborn infant were lost at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, leading to an unsuccessful search at a landfill and an apology from the hospital, officials said."

Literally throwing them away.

In response to questions from Chaffetz, Richards insisted that she does not manage the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, a political lobbying group that she said is managed as a separate organization. Chaffetz pointed out that Richards received $31,000 last year for services provided to the fund, but Richards said, “I don’t directly manage, no sir.”

Richards also clashed with Jordan over a video apology she issued days after the video about fetal tissue first emerged. Jordan insisted that she must have believed the contents of the video were true if she apologized for them.

Richards said she apologized because she thought it was inappropriate the doctor in the video had a “clinical discussion, in a nonconfidential, nonclinical setting.”

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Warren's next war?

Nothing about the petition or protest though. I'm perplexed.

Also see: Ann Romney memoir an intimate look at a political power couple 

For those who want her view on the matter. 

Mitt going to save the Republicans from Trump and themselves?