MoveOn.org mobilizes to support Planned Parenthood amid controversy

A liberal advocacy group is going to bat for Planned Parenthood after anti-abortion rights activists seized on a new undercover video that attracted headlines this week.
 
MoveOn.org is criticizing some media organizations – including The Hill, the Wall Street Journal and NPR – for not delving into the controversial background of the conservative activist group that filmed the video, which was made public Tuesday.
 
The video shows a New Jersey Planned Parenthood clinic manager giving advice on how to obtain abortions for underage girls and circumvent sex crime laws.

Planned Parenthood has not questioned the video's veracity and fired the employee from the recording the day it became public.
 
The video was filmed by Live Action, and Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com website helped circulate it. Breitbart has stirred up controversy in the past. Live Action founder Lila Rose has made hidden-camera videos with James O’Keefe, who has worked for Breitbart and was charged last year with entering a federal building under false pretenses.

Breitbart posted a similar, edited undercover video from O’Keefe that portrayed Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) workers as providing legal and tax advice to conservative activists posing as a couple engaged in a prostitution ring.
 
MoveOn this week sent e-mails to supporters, urging them to call The Hill and other media outlets to make the Breitbart connection clear.
 
“Tell The Hill to take down the article unless they update it to include this source's history of lying, doctoring video and using illegal means to obtain information,” the group said in its e-mail.
 
The Hill’s article described a “conservative media group’s … attempt to capture incriminating footage,” and did not mention Breitbart.
 
"We weren’t thinking of it strictly as a defense of Planned Parenthood,” MoveOn spokeswoman Ilyse Hogue told The Hill. “Our members have definitely expressed a need for years and years for media to report the background and do some investigations."
 
Breitbart’s videos have successfully stung his intended targets. A year after the ACORN video aired, Congress voted to strip federal funding for the group. 

And in July 2010, Shirley Sherrod was fired from her Department of Agriculture position as Georgia State Director of Rural Development after an edited Breitbart video portrayed her allegedly racist comments. President Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to Sherrod after more video footage surfaced showing that Breitbart took her comments out of context.
 
Undercover actors, posing as a pimp and a prostitute, are believed to have visited at least 11 health centers in six states in attempt to capture news-making footage. Planned Parenthood earlier this month alerted federal authorities to the suspicious behavior.
 
Now, conservative groups and lawmakers are using the Planned Parenthood video as a rallying cry. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said this week that the video helps make the case for his bill that would strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding.
 
"Every American should be shocked that an employee of the largest recipient of federal funds under Title X has been recorded aiding and abetting underage sex trafficking,” he said. Pence is also participating in a webcast Thursday night with almost a dozen anti-abortion rights groups to build support for his measure.
 
Planned Parenthood receives about $350 million each year in government grants and contracts on the local, state and federal levels.