Los Angeles Times Examines College Student Who Films Undercover Videos At Planned Parenthood Clinics

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 29 Apr 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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The Los Angeles Times on Sunday examined the efforts of 20-year-old college student Lila Rose, an antiabortion-rights advocate who films hidden-camera videos at Planned Parenthood clinics around the country and then posts them on the Internet with the aim of creating negative publicity for the organization. While Rose's strategy -- accusing Planned Parenthood of failing to report statutory rape -- is not new, her "new-media twist" of posting edited videos on the Internet has helped her garner a following among a younger generation of antiabortion-rights advocates, according to the Times. In the videos, Rose and a friend pose as minors who claim they became pregnant by older men and are seeking abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics in Los Angeles; Indianapolis; Bloomington, Ind.; Tucson, Ariz.; Phoenix and Memphis, Tenn. The videos are then "boiled down to five minutes, with portentous music and fast cuts to heighten the drama," the Times reports.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America refutes Rose's charges that it advises pregnant minors to lie about the ages of their adult partners. Laurie Rubiner, vice president for public policy and advocacy for PPFA, said telling a young woman to lie about the age of her sexual partner is a violation of the organization's policy. She said that the well-being of the clinics' clients is paramount and "that means making sure that we are complying with ... reporting requirements." Rubiner noted that Rose has refused to provide her unedited tapes to Planned Parenthood, so "it's very difficult for us to know what happened." The Times reports that Rose has not answered questions about who funds her work but that she received a $50,000 grant from the Gerard Health Foundation, which supports antiabortion-rights and abstinence-only sex education efforts. In addition, she has received no-cost legal advice from an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund.

The Times reports that Rose's work has gained some attention among conservative lawmakers at a local and state level. For example, the Orange County, Calif., Board of Supervisors in March voted to suspend a nearly $300,000 sex education grant for Planned Parenthood after a local conservative businessman raised the issue upon seeing Rose's videos. In Tennessee, Republican lawmakers cited Rose's video of a Memphis clinic in proposing to end a $721,000 contract with Planned Parenthood. In addition, a grand jury in Marion County, Ind., is investigating whether Planned Parenthood violates state law in a video shot by Rose at an Indianapolis clinic, according to a spokesperson for the county prosecutor (Abcarian, Los Angeles Times, 4/26).

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