By now, many Americans are already familiar with the slate of new videos showing Planned Parenthood staffers helping alleged sexual traffickers get abortions and STD testing for the underage girls the said they exploited. But one section of one of the videos contains another concern.
At the Roanoke, Virginia abortion facility, a Planned Parenthood staffer suggests the sex trafficker consider going to the health department instead of taking the girls he is victimizing to the Planned Parenthood — because it would be easier to hide the illegal activity.
“They’re discreet. They’re confidential. They, you know, don’t tell people what’s going on, because — frankly — it’s nobody’s business,” the female Planned Parenthood staff person is shown saying on the video. “And the thing is, see this is the thing a lot of people don’t know that. . .Right, through the Health Department.”
But the video also shows Planned Parenthood staff in Roanoke, Virginia told the Live Action undercover agent who said he thinks he might have an STD to attempt to donate blood because he can get free testing. The conversation takes place as follows:
Undercover Reporter as Pimp: Hi, um, let me see, is there someone I could talk to about testing?
Undercover Reporter as Pimp: Ok, so I’m kind of experiencing some slight burning sensation….. is that, I don’t think that’s normal, right?
Planned Parenthood: No. It’s not normal.
Planned Parenthood: Well, uh *laughs*, see I tell a lot of people, I say if you know, if you’re not quite sure, you’re not having any symptoms, but for peace of mind, go donate blood – cause if you go donate blood, they have to test for everything anyway. And you know, a lot of plasma places, they’ll test you for free.
Undercover Reporter as Pimp: That’s good information.
Planned Parenthood: And they pay you for your plasma. You know what I mean? So, there’s several different ways around it without having to spend a whole lot of money.
David Schmidt, the research director for Live Action, responded to the comments this way in a blog post on Monday.
“Today I called a couple blood donation centers and asked them if was good advice for people who think they might have STDs to donate blood. They said that it was very bad advice and that if people think they have an STD or other condition that they should address that condition before attempting to donate blood,” he said. ” I was also told that if one attempts to donate blood and is found to be ineligible through testing, they will only tell you that you are ineligible. They will not tell you the details of your positive result so that blood donation centers don’t get abused as disease testing centers.”
“It appears that they have had to put in policy to prevent the very thing that Planned Parenthood is encouraging. This direction from Planned Parenthood staff is making it harder for blood donation centers to collect good blood and save lives,’ Schmidt added.
He concludes: “So Planned Parenthood, is directing people who might have STDs to blood donation centers an organizational policy? You have watched the video and your public statement about it was that your staff acted “professionally”. I can only assume that means that the advice given in this video is within policy and institutionally acceptable. I think it is becoming clear that Planned Parenthood doesn’t have isolated problems but rather institutional ones and this is the latest shocking example.”
