Immoral Moralists

I know, the title sounds like an oxymoron, but bear with me. Merriam Webster defines Moralist as: “a person who has strong feelings and opinions about what is right and who tries to control the moral behavior of other people.”

What if the moralist is wrong about what is right? What if the moralist uses immoral or unethical tactics to control the “moral” behavior of other people? These are not merely hypothetical questions; history is rife with examples of heinous crimes committed in the name of God or morality. In fact, some of those crimes were committed by the pro-life fanatics who oppose on religious grounds all abortions and many forms of birth control. I guess the fanatics feel that since God can never be wrong they are justified in using any means necessary to prevent access to abortions and the most effective forms of birth control. And when I say any means I am including dishonesty, character assassinations, and even murder!

The latest example of this is the surreptitious filming of Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s senior director of medical services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola in conversation with a pair posing as executives from an imaginary Irvine human biologics company seeking sources of fetal tissue for medical research. As David Cohen and Krysten Cannon wrote in their July 21, 2015 RH Reality Check article entitled "Attacks On Planned Parenthood Part of a Campaign to Harass Legal Abortion Providers:" 

“...these videos [filmed and released by An anti-abortion group called the Center for Medical Progress] are part of a highly orchestrated campaign to discredit Planned Parenthood and ultimately undermine legal and safe abortion, they are also part of an ongoing campaign to target and harass individual abortion providers and others connected with the safe and legal provision of abortion care.

And these strikes are hardly an isolated strategy. As our new book, Living in the Crosshairs: The Untold Stories of Anti-Abortion Terrorism, covers in detail, abortion providers and clinic staff around the country can be the subject of unrelenting personal attacks by anti-abortion extremists. These personal attacks can have serious effects on abortion providers’ lives.

This kind of individual targeting takes on a variety of forms—from hate mail and death threats, to regular large-scale demonstrations in front of people’s homes and stalking providers outside of work. At its most extreme, this kind of targeting has resulted in eight abortion providers murdered since 1993, the most recent being Dr. George Tiller in the foyer of his Wichita, Kansas church in May 2009.

One form of individualized targeting that is less commonly discussed is professional harassment, a type of abuse that seeks to destroy a provider’s professional standing or that occurs within the provider’s professional environment. The video released by the extremist-backed Center for Medical Progress is exactly this, as it attempts to suggest that Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, and Gatter, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Pasadena, were acting callously, unethically, and possibly illegally. Anti-abortion forces aren’t just trying to paint Planned Parenthood in a bad despite the fact that they are trusted, caring, and light; they are also trying to ruin Nucatola and Gatter’s individual professional identities, despite the fact that they did nothing wrong and committed reproductive health-care professionals."

In her July 16, 2015 Los Angeles Time article entitled "Undercover Video Sting of Planned Parenthood Is Off-Base, As Usual" Robin Abcarian tells us about the Center for Medical Progress [“Regress” would be more accurate]. The groups founder is David Daleiden. According to his biography, Daleiden is a longtime associate of [Lila] Rose, who collaborated with conservative activist James O’Keefe on earlier anti-abortion projects.” You might also remember O' Keefe as the scummy, reactionary who produced highly edited and deceptive videos of Acorn's employees allegedly helping a pimp commit crimes, or as the asshole who posed as a telephone repairman to gain access to Senator Mary Landrieu's headquarters. In fact, deceptive videos have become a favorite tactic of reactionary shit bags such as Andrew Dimbart, James O'Keefe and now David Daleiden.

Ms. Abcarian urges us to judge these videos for ourselves by reading the 60 page transcript of the meeting that was filmed. She wrote:

“I find nothing in it [the transcript] that smacks of wrongdoing. The worst that can be said is that Nucatola appeared to speak about aborted fetuses in a manner that might be regarded as callous by some. Her offense, if such a thing can be be said to exist, is one of tone, not substance.

Nucatola repeatedly told her lunch companion phonies that Planned Parenthood collects fetal tissue for medical research because patients undergoing abortions have asked for the service.

'I think every one of them is happy to know that there’s a possibility for them to do this extra bit of good,' she said.”

Unfortunately it does not matter that Planned Parenthood did not make a profit from selling tissue from aborted fetuses or that planned Planned Parenthood did not do anything illegal. This phony issue will be treated as if it has merit regardless of the facts. As Ms. Abcarian points out:

“[t]his story is tailor-made for the anti-abortion histrionics of conservative outlets like Fox News. And it’s a gift to anti-choice politicians, who have long sought to defund Planned Parenthood, which performs more than a quarter of all abortions in this country.

House Speaker John Boehner has vowed to investigate. And members of the crowded GOP presidential field have tripped over themselves to condemn Planned Parenthood, always a handy punching bag for them. Officials in Ohio, Indiana and Georgia have ordered investigations into whether Planned Parenthood sold organs from aborted fetuses.

Their misplaced fervor ignores the fact that fetal tissue has been critical to many medical advances -- perhaps even some from which they have benefited.” 

Grand inquisitor Issa and grand inquisitor Gowdy are licking their chops over the prospect of being selected to conduct the persecution of Planned Parenthood. All of the other alleged scandals, such as Benghazi, have the combustibility of a wet diaper! But this... this is hot stuff! Using fetal tissue for research is so ripe for hot, righteous outrage. Falsehoods be damned... truth has never been a criteria for right wing anger. It does not matter how much good it may do or whether it is legal, the right wing will say it should be illegal and Planned Parenthood should be defunded!

Have we learned nothing from the damages caused by the false accusations against Acorn, Shirley Sherrod and Van Jones? It is time for reasonable people to fight back! The real investigation should revolve around the illegality of taping the meeting without the knowledge of Dr. Nucatola and around the scandalous accusations falsely made by Daleiden and his bogus and misnamed group.