There seems to be no end to the depths right wingers will go to try and smear Planned Parenthood, and it seems they've settled on a strategy, this time employing the anti-Planned Parenthood group Live Action. Live Action tried to sting Planned Parenthood back in April by attempting to trap them into admitting they perform sex-selective abortions. It didn't work then, and it's not going to work now.
Via Huffington Post:
"She showed up unannounced at our office on a Wednesday, claiming that she wanted to make a sizeable contribution to our electoral efforts. That raised a red flag right away," said Beth Shipp, political director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. She said NARAL sent lower-level staffers from its development team to meet with the woman at a Caribou Coffee in Washington, D.C., on October 5 because it was a "high-trafficked public place."
Dawn Laguens, executive vice president for communications at PPAF, said the woman raised PPAF's suspicions by asking "kooky questions" about abortion policy that a donor would not normally ask. "We're focused on birth control and protecting Roe v. Wade and making sure your boss can't take away insurance coverage, and she's digging on these very obscure policy topics," Laguens said. "That was an alert."
PPAF became so suspicious of the woman that they set up a second meeting with her to get a better image of her face on the security camera. When the woman returned, the security guard asked for her identification, and she presented a Costco ID that listed her name as "Wendy Wilmowski." Laguens said PPAF was then able to confirm that Wilmowski was working with Live Action and that the website listed on her business card was a hoax.
"[Live Action has] a history of hoax videos, but now they've added that they will even impersonate a medical provider and mislead people out in the world with this fake website," Laguens said.
Let's not even laugh too hard at the fact that the photo ID this woman produced was a Costco card. I don't think you can use a Costco card to vote, but for purposes of this story, that's probably not relevant.
No, what matters here is that they went in to Planned Parenthood with the express intent to set them up in order to smear them. Fortunately, their targets were smarter than the average bear, but that doesn't mean they aren't concerned. They are.
None of the organizations are worried that the people with whom Wilmowski met on their donor teams said anything that could be used against them, but they did express concern that Live Action would heavily edit the videos before releasing them to the public as it has done in the past.
This where I take a moment to remind everyone that Mitt Romney, current head of the Republican party and candidate for President, profited from the business of disposing of legally aborted fetuses. You might think that would bother some people enough to stand down on Planned Parenthood, but no.
I guess if Republicans can't win on ideas, they'll try to win by framing an organization helping women get access to health care. Seems like a shady way to try and win an election, but it wouldn't be the first time. I think we should call on Mitt Romney to denounce these techniques and stop relying on dirty tricks to win.
