Group Says Video Shows Planned Parenthood Wrongdoing

An anti-abortion group that has repeatedly taken on Planned Parenthood released a videotape on Thursday that it says shows employees at a Virginia clinic offering to help a man posing as a pimp get secret abortions for underage girls.

The group, California-based Live Action, called on Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to investigate the Planned Parenthood clinic, in Richmond, over what founder Lila Rose called its willingness to exploit young girls.

"Our new video shows their Richmond clinic willing to aid and abet the sexual exploitation of minors and coaching a pimp about how girls as young as 14 or 15 could circumvent parental consent laws for secret abortions," Rose said in a written statement.

The new video comes one day after Planned Parenthood said it had fired a manager of a clinic in central New Jersey based on a Live Action videotape that appeared to show the employee coaching people posing as a pimp and prostitute to lie about their age and other information.

A Planned Parenthood spokesman said in a written statement that the organization had notified local and federal authorities of the Virginia visit and that a counselor at the clinic "reacted professionally to the highly unusual person posing as a patient."

"In the past, Live Action has heavily edited tapes to create the impression that Planned Parenthood staff are not acting professionally or following the law," the spokesman said.

"Planned Parenthood's first analysis is that this new tape from Virginia is edited and we believe the members of the press should be able to view the raw, unedited footage of any tapes that have been made public," he said.

Earlier in January, Planned Parenthood said it alerted U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to the string of health-center visitors in a number of states that indicated involvement in sex trafficking of minors.

Brian Gottstein, director of communications for Cuccinelli, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the Virginia incident.

Rose said Live Action was sharing with Cuccinelli's office the full, unedited footage of the videotapes taken at the Richmond clinic, as well as transcripts.

She said they were "endemic" of Planned Parenthood's "willingness to aid and abet in the sexual exploitation of minors" and young women.

"Watch the video," Rose said in her written statement. "The clinic worker admits they do this 'once or twice a month.' Our investigations of 12 clinics in the past four years show a pattern of Planned Parenthood's willingness to cover-up the sexual abuse of minors and young women."

According to Rose, in the videotape a man posing as a pimp and a woman with him seek assistance for getting abortions, STD testing and birth control for girls they "manage" as sex workers, who are from out of the country and as young as 14.

Live Action has released more than a dozen hidden camera videos from 10 states, which it says shows a pattern of illegal Planned Parenthood activities including cover-up of sexual abuse of minors, skirting of parental consent laws, and manipulating women to have abortions.

Rose, who founded Live Action at the age of 15, has become a star of the anti-abortion movement and many conservatives for her clandestine tactics in taking on Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest provider of surgical abortions.