Washington D.C., May 29, 2014 / 12:13 pm
Releasing a report detailing six years of undercover investigations at Planned Parenthood, a pro-life group has called for a formal investigation and an end to taxpayer funding of the organization.
"When I first began to go undercover in these facilities in 2007, I thought I would find illegal and harmful activity," said Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action.
"But even I had no idea of the huge, company-wide commitment to abortion at any cost – the fraud, the lies, the cover-ups."
Rose founded Live Action in an attempt to expose abuses within Planned Parenthood clinics. Over the past six years, the group has sent staff members or volunteers with hidden cameras to document illegal or corrupt activity within clinics.
Live Action's new report provides a summary of the information gathered during these undercover investigations throughout the U.S. Among these findings, the report says, are false advertising and fraud, employee failure to report cases of sexual abuse or statutory rape, "noncommittal response" about supporting children who survive abortion attempts, agreement to perform sex-selective abortions and the acceptance of donations earmarked for the abortion of racial minorities.
These cases show that "Planned Parenthood has proven itself a negligent and untrustworthy caretaker of the health of our nation's women and children," the report stated, adding that in its cooperation with sex-selective abortion, sex trafficking, and child sexual abuse, "this abortion corporation represents a clear and present danger to the American people."
On May 28, Rose and Live Action volunteers delivered copies of the investigative report to each members of Congress. They also launched a website, www.plannedparenthoodexposed.com, which details of their investigations and a petition calling for an end to taxpayer funding of the organization.
"An organization that lies to women and kills three thousand children every day for profit can have no valid claim on a single American's paycheck," Rose said at the May 28 release of the report. "It's a grave injustice that our government and our president actively promote this extreme form of violence. It's a disgrace that we are all forced to fund it."
During the 2011-2012 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood received $540.7 million in taxpayer funds, according to Planned Parenthood's most recent annual report.
Live Action said that the "overwhelming" evidence of the organization's "abuses, law-breaking, and corruption," show that "Planned Parenthood must be immediately divested of taxpayer money."
The Live Action report also recommended a "thorough and detailed investigation of Planned Parenthood facilities across the country" and the use of court subpoenas for records involving minors in order to determine cases of child abuse and statutory rape, among other offenses.
In addition, the document requested the suspension of medical licenses to Planned Parenthood personnel, due to Live Action's findings that the abortion organization is not in compliance "with the basic tenets of the medical profession."
Rose charged that abortion clinics destroy lives and "regularly skirt or outright violate state statutes," stressing that the clinics "need to be investigated, inspected, and shut down."
"Our report shows where the true 'war on women' is – it's front and center in America's abortion facilities," she said.
