Lila Rose |
YouTube has blocked a video that shows Planned Parenthood staffers trying to cover up statutory rape with a secret abortion, one group claims.
The student-led nonprofit Live Action posted a video of a Birmingham abortion clinic offering to "bend the rules" of Alabama's parental consent and mandatory reporting laws to conceal a reported incident of statutory rape.
As WND reported, the recording reveals a counselor at Planned Parenthood telling a volunteer, who describes herself as a 14-year-old statutory rape victim, saying the clinic "does sometimes bend the rules a little bit."
Sex between an adult and a 14-year-old is a felony in Alabama. The pro-life organization said this is the seventh Planned Parenthood clinic implicated in a multi-state scandal over the suppression of statutory rape evidence.
Lila Rose, a 20-year-old UCLA student and Live Action president, went undercover at the Birmingham business and told a counselor she was 14, pregnant by her 31-year-old "boyfriend," and she couldn't let her parents know.
Live Action's recording of the incident can be seen below:
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Rose asks, "Is it a problem about my boyfriend?"
The counselor, identified as "Tanisha," concludes, "As long as you consented to having sex with him, there's nothing we can truly do about that."
"Tanisha" acknowledges the "boyfriend" could be in big trouble because of the ages and then told Rose that the clinic manager "sometimes does bend the rules a little bit."
The counselor also confirms that whatever is said within the Planned Parenthood walls stays there.
However, Live Action said, Alabama Code 26-14-3 requires health professionals to disclose suspected cases of sexual abuse to state officials immediately.
"The law is explicit about a health-care provider's duty to report, yet Planned Parenthood pretends they cannot say anything," Rose noted of the investigation. "Planned Parenthood increases its business and influence by circumventing state reporting laws, but inflicts terrible harm upon the vulnerable young girls sent back to statutory rapists."
The video is the sixth in Live Action's "Mona Lisa Project," a nationwide undercover investigation that documents Planned Parenthood's repeated noncompliance with state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse of minors. It has prompted the state attorney general's office to open an investigation on the nation's largest abortion provider.
Alabama was the fourth state to be implicated in the controversy, along with Arizona, Indiana and Tennessee.
But now YouTube has blocked the video without prior warning or explanation – even though it contains no clear violations of the popular video sharing site's "community guidelines."
The video had been on YouTube for 10 days, had been seen by several thousand viewers and linked by news organizations. A message now states, "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
Live Action claims YouTube has violated its own professed regard for free speech and political neutrality, as the website has previously censored the group's videos.
Rose said the website should not side with Planned Parenthood, especially when the abortion provider has illustrated incriminating behavior.
"It is an outrage for YouTube to arbitrarily censor a video that has sparked a state investigation and national concern," she said in a statement. "The people of Alabama and the public at large have a right to know how Planned Parenthood really treats vulnerable young girls."
While Planned Parenthood has offered no public apology or admission of guilt concerning the behavior of clinic personnel, it has offered to "conduct an internal, fact-based review."
According to Live Action, Alabama Attorney General Troy King has called the video's content "extremely troubling." A spokesperson with the Jefferson County sheriff's office said, "Anyone who sees [the video] should be disturbed by it."
Rose said, "Even as Planned Parenthood covers up sexual abuse and YouTube bans the evidence, we will continue to make the facts available to the public. Everyone should be allowed to view the footage and draw their own conclusions about illicit activity at Planned Parenthood."
Concerned individuals may send a message to YouTube or call the company at (650)253-0000.