My email from USAction/True Majority

Don't let them smear Planned Parenthood

Dear Kirk,

Sign our petition to defend Planned Parenthood from false attacks.

The right wing smear machine that took down Shirley Sherrod, Van Jones and ACORN is at it again, and this time the target is Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of health care to low income women.

The attack is as deceitful as it is dangerous to our democracy -- dangerous because some conservatives in Congress are all too willing to use this manufactured controversy as a political tool to roll back women’s rights.

Please take a moment and sign this petition and let Congress know that we won’t stand by and let an organization dedicated to helping women be falsely smeared for political purposes. 

Here’s the skinny: On Tuesday an extremist, anti-choice group released an obviously edited and distortion-filled video of their “undercover” visit to a New Jersey clinic. They claim the video shows Planned Parenthood employees helping cover up an underage sex trafficking operation.

Yeah, that’s right. Planned Parenthood, a leader not only in women’s health but in women’s rights, is being falsely accused of helping hide a criminal sex trafficking ring.

“Sick” and “deplorable” are two words that come to mind, but “absurd” probably fits it best when you see the heavily edited video and hear the truth, which is that Planned Parenthood had already called the U.S. Attorney General’s office about visits to 12 clinics nationwide by a man purporting to be a sex trafficker. The man was asking for information on health services for his sex workers, including some that he said were minors illegally in the U.S.

In reality there is no sex trafficking ring. The visits were made by radical right-wingers who wanted to get Planned Parenthood workers on videotape, so they could edit and distort their words to paint a patently false picture. Now this video is circulating through the media, enabling right-wing talking heads and Congress members to use it as a political weapon.

We need to stand up and loudly defend Planned Parenthood from these attacks. Otherwise, the radical right could get its wish -- cutting off funding and weakening family planning services and reproductive health care for women.

Darcy Scott Martin

USAction/True Majority

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If True Majority truly wants to represent the majority, it should rethink its position on Planned Parenthood. The majority of people in the United States opposes abortion. According to Gallup.com, 51% of Americans call themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice."

According to Planned Parenthood, government funding accounts for about 17 percent of its budget, with most of that coming from the federal government.


It’s time to stop wasting our tax dollars on this reprehensible organization. 


Check out the video yourself and see whether you think that it’s a smear campaign or whether there were some serious problems with the conduct of the Planned Parenthood employee.


By the way, despite True Majority’s claim that this is merely a fabrication, Planned Parenthood has fired the employee.