Today, anti-choice activist Lila Rose released a heavily-edited video purporting to show a single Planned Parenthood employee offering advice to an activist masquerading as a child sex trafficker. In fact, after the activist’s visit, Planned Parenthood properly alerted the FBI about possible child sex trafficking violations. Rose has connections to James O’Keefe, the convicted criminal who launched a similar smear campaign against ACORN in 2008.

Marge Baker, Executive Vice President of People For the American Way, issued the following statement:

“Lila Rose’s attempt to smear Planned Parenthood shouldn’t fool anybody– the Religious Right’s decision to promote her attacks is either spectacularly gullible or thoroughly dishonest. For years, the Religious Right has fought against Planned Parenthood’s commitment to providing necessary reproductive healthcare to American women of all income levels. This hoax, which follows the right-wing smear playbook that we’ve seen so many times, is a transparent attempt to discredit an organization that provides invaluable health services to women.

“Rose’s smear campaign against Planned Parenthood fits neatly in the mold of James O’Keefe’s ACORN smear and Andrew Breitbart’s hit job on Shirley Sherrod. The ACORN and Sherrod hit jobs quickly got out of hand, resulting in misinformed and misguided decisions by public officials. Let’s make sure that any discussion of Rose’s videos is dominated by facts and reason and that this issue is quickly put to rest. Americans have plenty of important issues to discuss—a desperate activist’s attempted smear campaign shouldn’t be one of them. “

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