Planned Parenthood: BDSM advocate no longer counseling teens; Update: Live Action derides "the token firing" strategy; Update: PP lied about termination?

It didn’t take long for Live Action to get results from the first video launched in its new Planned Parenthood Exposed project [update: link fixed]. Released yesterday, the undercover video shows a counselor at a PP clinic in Indianapolis extolling the pleasures of sadism, masochism, and bondage to an investigator posing as a 15-year-old in need of basic sex education:

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The conversation starts off discussing role-playing games in sexual activity, but the counselor quickly turns to suggesting that the girl try out being a dominatrix or a submissive. When the girl asks what “kink” means, the counselor suggests anal sex and toys, and instructs her to start off with a “taste” and then work up to the “harder things.”

She’s suggesting this to a fifteen-year-old girl. Basic sex education at this stage should consist of, well, the basics, including the need to wait for maturity and full development, and the need to keep from being exploited by teenage boys, especially when it comes to pain and domination. This isn’t feminine empowerment; it’s molding victims who will eventually end up in their clinics. And let’s not forget that taxpayers are handing over nearly a half-billion dollars to PP every year, in part to offer this kind of advice to vulnerable teens.

By the end of the day, Planned Parenthood distanced itself from the advice dispensed at its clinic. They rejected the idea that this is a normal PP counseling session and said that the employee no longer worked for the organization (via LifeNews):

Live Action president Lila Rose said the video — the first of several tapes from other Planned Parenthood centers around the country that her organization plans to release — reveals Planned Parenthood’s support of “dangerous” sexual experimentation that should alarm parents and lawmakers. She also said it should result in Planned Parenthood losing federal funds for sexual education.

“They’re pushing dangerous sexual practices on teens and promoting them to teens,” Rose said. She also said such practices “are going to set teens up for physical, emotional and mental problems.”

Planned Parenthood president and CEO Betty Cockrum doesn’t dispute the authenticity of the tape, but also said it is not indicative of the type of counseling and information clients are provided.

“While the heavy editing of this video makes it impossible to know the full exchange that took place, this video clearly does not reflect our professional standards or training protocols, and this staff member is no longer employed at PPINK,” she said in a written statement.

“This video does not reflect the work our dedicated employees do every day, nor the experience shared by parents and teens who participate in our programs,” Cockrum added.

Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Tammy Lieber said Cockrum was not available Wednesday night to answer questions. Lieber also would not reveal whether the employee was fired or left voluntarily, or when that occurred, due to privacy policies.

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Cockrum is laying a dangerous wager with this statement. Live Action made this tape in March, and afterward launched the new microsite. That signals that this is not an isolated incident, and that we can expect a series of tapes from PP clinics that show a pattern of such “advice” from its counselors. Also, the “heavily edited” rebuttal has been used before with Live Action, and failed; they will eventually post the entire video, and it will almost certainly show as it has in their past efforts that the unedited tape doesn’t mitigate the issue at all.

Update: A couple of notes. First, while my reference to “cosplay” was meant to be tongue in cheek, it’s not really accurate. I’ve edited to be a little more clear. Also, Lila Rose dropped me an e-mail to note that the full video is already available by request for media outlets wishing to confirm the story, and definitely on an age-restricted basis.

Also, Live Action has a statement out in response to Planned Parenthood’s comments:

“You’re seeing step one of the Planned Parenthood damage control handbook: the token firing.  It’s always a little strange, because Planned Parenthood tries to have it both ways: they announce terminating the employee for violating “professional standards” but never specify what those standards are. Meanwhile, their BDSM training video remains online, and they continue to list “resources” that tell kids that torture sex is totally fine. So what exactly did the staffer in our video do to bring the wrath of Planned Parenthood down on her?

“In past releases, step two in the handbook is to ignore the exact same abuses we reveal in subsequent videos from additional Planned Parenthood locations across the country.  We saw this in our sex-trafficking investigation and our sex-selective abortion investigation, and we’ll probably see it here, too.  Planned Parenthood is trying to cast our video as a one-off.

“But throwing one employee under the bus does nothing to solve the abortion giant’s organization-wide problem: their promotion of dangerous sexual activity to teens in their online materials and programs.  Lawmakers need to take action immediately to stop forcing taxpayers to support Planned Parenthood, and parents should call their school principals and superintendents to cut off Planned Parenthood’s access to teens in their communities.”

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We’ll see what happens after the next video drops.

Update: Maybe it’s just the world’s shortest termination. Yeah, that’s the ticket:

https://twitter.com/LiveActionFilms/status/477143682018062337

Live Action will have a YouTube up later about this development.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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