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Live Action Films performed a valuable
service by exposing Planned Parenthood

By Scott Tibbs, December 9, 2008

The IDS editorial criticizing Live Action Films misses on several points.

First, nitpicking about whether Live Action Films represents "journalism" or not ignores the reality that opinion journalism is journalism. Would the IDS editorial board argue that the entire IDS is "journalism" except for the opinion page, which includes IDS staff editorials? In addition, Indiana University journalism professor Steve Higgs runs a news site known as the Bloomington Alternative, a "mission-driven publication whose goal is to promote and celebrate progressive social change" according to the BA's about page. Is Higgs not a journalist?

In terms of the local Planned Parenthood, there is more than federal funds at stake. The Bloomington City Council has given this Planned Parenthood corporate welfare for ten years in a row, including $2,440 to remodel the front office (2006) and $3,600 to purchase four computers for the clinic (2003). What low-income patients were served by these grants?

The IDS complains that Planned Parenthood employees might now be less likely to foster a trusting relationship with their patients for fear of a sting operation. First, if PP employees are not attempting to cover up sexual abuse as this "nurse" did, they have nothing to worry about. Second, we as a society want people to be deterred from acting illegally. That is one of the goals of our criminal justice system.

While the IDS complains that Rose's efforts "could have been directed towards a real victim", the editorial board should consider the question: how likely is it that this was an isolated incident? How many times has Bloomington's Planned Parenthood covered up real sexual abuse? It is difficult to believe that an incident like this takes place out of thin air, which is why a full investigation by law enforcement is necessary.

And of course, there are many victims of Planned Parenthood each Thursday. Those victims are the babies dismembered for profit by Planned Parenthood's abortionist. The real tragedy is that those murders are legal under the banner of "reproductive choice" and that those murder victims are invisible to and forgotten by society.