The pro-life group Live Action released an undercover video Tuesday that they say show an Indiana Planned Parenthood clinic giving improper counseling, offering medical misinformation and violating Indiana’s informed consent law.
The video shows a Planned Parenthood clinician telling a supposedly 10-week pregnant woman that the heartbeat can be heard at, “I think, the 8th or the 9th week.” The clinician also says having an abortion will not affect the woman’s ability to have children later on. The clinician refers to the unborn child as a “fetus,” and when asked, “It’s not like a person?” she responds, “No.”
Live Action says that Indiana’s informed consent law requires a woman to receive accurate medical information before an abortion. Live Action says that a heartbeat begins three weeks and one day after conception, citing information from The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology. Live Action also cites two studies—a 2009 study from the Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey and a 2003 report from the Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research—which show that abortion negatively affects a woman’s ability to have more children.
Live Action's Lila Rose told HUMAN EVENTS that the group tries to make sure it includes the hand gestures of the Planned Parenthood workers in the footage, since they’ve observed a definite tension during the undercover stings. On the Indiana video, the woman clinician’s hands gestures are prominently visible, and she looks to be nervously fiddling with her fingers. On a different video, Rose said a male employee was “nervously working his hands.”
Live Action is also careful about the legal aspects of their own work. Rose said the organization is methodical in its approach to undercover video stings.
“We have a legal team that we consult with,” she said, adding that they proceed with utmost caution when conducting the investigations.
The video released Tuesday is the third in Live Action’s Rose Acuna Project, which exposes medical misinformation and manipulative counseling at Planned Parenthoods across America. Rose said Live Action ensures the videos are given to state authorities who can further investigate the charges.
Live Action videos have previously led to action at the state level against Planned Parenthood clinics. One clinic in Alabama was put on probation earlier this year, while last year in Tennessee, lawmakers introduced legislation that could have stopped taxpayer funds from going to Planned Parenthood in the state.
Rose said Live Action has conducted four major projects and uncover operations in over a dozen clinics.
