HT- Hot Air- Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood: “That’s not a baby growing inside of you”

posted at 2:20 pm on December 9, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Live Action has a new series of videos that launches today called the Rosa Acuna Project. Their new effort aims to expose manipulation by Planned Parenthood counselors intended to pressure women into having abortions, or at the very least, provide dishonest information to support false rationalizations for the procedure. In this clip from the Appleton, Wisconsin clinic, a counselor tells the woman that what’s growing inside her uterus isn’t a baby at all, or “anything like that” — and the doctor agrees:

In the undercover video, when the two women ask a Planned Parenthood counselor if the pregnant woman’s 10-week-old unborn child has a heartbeat, the counselor emphasizes “heart tones,” and answers, “Heart beat is when the fetus is active in the uterus–can survive–which is about seventeen or eighteen weeks.” On the contrary, embryologists agree that the heartbeat begins around 3 weeks. Wisconsin informed consent law requires that women receive medically accurate information before undergoing an abortion.
The counselor then says, “A fetus is what’s in the uterus right now. That is not a baby.” Dr. Polhaska, the abortion doctor, insists, “It’s not a baby at this stage or anything like that.” Polhaska also states that having an abortion will be “much safer than having a baby,” warning, “You know, women die having babies.” …
The investigation is organized by Live Action, a nonprofit student group. Lila Rose, the 21-year-old UCLA student and Live Action president, says medical lies and manipulative counseling are routine at Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain.
“They will do or say anything in order to sell more abortions to more women, whether it is covering up sexual abuse or lying to women about medical facts,” says Rose. “Our team has visited dozens of Planned Parenthood clinics undercover. Planned Parenthood, while claiming to support patient self-determination, operates with an ‘abortion-first mentality.’”

The explanation of “heart tones” is particularly dishonest. The counselor says it can’t be a heartbeat because the baby clump of cells isn’t viable, but that it becomes a heartbeat at 17-18 weeks.  But a child isn’t viable at that point, either.  It does come closer to corresponding with the legal limitations of Planned Parenthood’s abortion services, however.
As for a fetus not being “anything like” a baby, well, that’s hardly a shocking statement coming from PP, but it does demonstrate the depths of deception to which they’re prepared to plunge to rake in that abortion cash.  Of course it’s a baby growing inside of the uterus, one with its own DNA and independent biological functions that start within minutes of conception.  Unlike global warming, the science on human reproduction actually is settled.