The truth behind the attack on Planned Parenthood

By
Rachael Goldsmith
-
32
2

cameron-slater-whaleoil-flensed-e1284437036141

Cameron Slater has recently been posting a series of heavily edited, out of context, and faked videos made by a militant pro-life group in the USA, which claim that Planned Parenthood is illegally selling foetuses, that that is the reason behind their provision of abortion services, and demanding they should be shut down. He’s just been posting them up, without even bothering to mansplain why he has a sudden interest in US reproductive rights, nor what their relevance is to NZ.

As this is a USA-based situation, it makes sense to defer to investigations and analysis US media and reproductive-rights groups have undertaken into these videos. So here’s some links to the other, factual side of the story.

This was written when the video came out and is a good overview:

 “Human tissue is widely used in research, and there is not enough of it available for that either. Fetal cells have in the past contributed to such breakthroughs as development of the polio and rubella vaccines. At its peak, polio paralyzed 1,000 children a day and threatened millions of people worldwide. Saving them and preventing a resurgence of polio is what the vast majority of people might consider to be a kind of a pro-life thing. Planned Parenthood legally helps people who wish to donate tissue to do so.”

Keep reading here, here and here.

Is foetus donation an awful subject to think about? Yes. It’s confronting. It’s emotional. It’s loaded – both donating tissue and the reasons & benefits of/for donation are both complex and hard-hitting. But, does that automatically make it wrong, let alone illegal? No.

I’m quite accepting of people’s personal sets of ethics. I’m not one of those people who automatically writes someone off because they have a different opinion to me. I have pro-life friends who I highly respect. I have no problem with people being against abortion. I have no problem with people speaking out against abortion in the public arena. That is your ethics, and I respect that, and your right to talk about them to whoever you please.

What I do have a problem with, is where an ideology takes over people to the extent where the ethic to be honest and truthful – and responsible to the community around you – is forsaken for lying, manipulating , and making up ‘facts’ because the real facts don’t suit you. There is no ethical basis, no matter what ideology you hold, to deliberately mislead because the actual facts don’t reflect your ideology. This case is particularly ironic – do I need to spiel off scripture about  integrity and what happens to those who mislead? No. You know them already. WWJD? Not this, that’s for sure.

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I know many people who are pro-life who abhor this kind of trickery. They wish pro-life organisations could do them a favour and behave honestly. I think that it’s a real shame that pro-lifers have to feel shame for their stance because it has been taken too far by extremists. I get that – I work in the animal welfare field. I do not appreciate the shame I feel when extremist groups like PETA (remember the foam ‘mutilated’ lamb & fake shock vid of brutal shearing? How’s that 99% kill rate working for you PETA? Actually – how’s that list of 8 murdered doctors & too many dead pregnant women denied an abortion tracking LiveAction?) and others launch campaigns that contain fakery and trickery that backfires and causes the world to rile against animal welfare activists. It belittles us. It embarrasses us. It takes away from what we do. It makes us all look like crazies.

The same applies here. The truth always wins out, and CMP & LiveAction, just like PETA, are guilty of elevating a legitimate ideology into hysteria based on spin, lies, manipulation and trickery. That does nobody any favours, but least of all their own cause.

 

 

 

 

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32 COMMENTS

  1. There can be but one reason why Slater has suddenly taken up;

    … posting a series of heavily edited, out of context, and faked videos made by a militant pro-life group in the USA, which claim that Planned Parenthood is illegally selling foetuses, that that is the reason behind their provision of abortion services, and demanding they should be shut down. He’s just been posting them up, without even bothering to mansplain why he has a sudden interest in US reproductive rights, nor what their relevance is to NZ.

    As with previous “campaigns”, he is most likely being paid to do so.

    [Disclaimer: A couple of years ago, I received a donation for my blogging. The sum was ten dollars. – Frank Macskasy]

    • This is the thing I seriously take issue with over slaters site; he is being paid to run stories (handsomely) yet still asks his loyal fanbase for donations. He is a web-based televangelist, being paid to mis-inform.

    • Sorry Frank, I must disagree. Payment is not the only reason for Slater’s contemptible behaviour.

      He is quite open about the fact that wishes to cause massive disruption and confusion. One of his ‘groups’ is even called Chaos and Mayhem – he is one of the rare, dangerously sick people who would see the world fall even at cost to himself.

      We only notice him occasionally, but he has to wake up to himself every day. Poor, poor guy.

    • As with previous “campaigns”, he is most certainly being paid to do so.

      (Couldn’t resist the correction.)

    • Sorry…I haven’t read this properly, I thought it was about Sperm Whales or more Whale Vomit.

      God forbid, it’s another terrorist threat from pro-lifers/anti-abortionists. FFS, as if there isn’t enough terror, or using child bombers in the world, without bringing fetus bombers into it?

      Still, the government will enact more severe anti-terror laws and more stringent snooping capabilities and we will all feel safer in our beds.

      Except abortionists and pro-abortionist terrorists. I don’t know whether to cry, or cry?

    • The most vocal critic of the abortion issue, would be the exclusive brethren. It is not the first, nor the last time that they placed their TAX-FREE money to poor use.

  2. Well said.

    But, why are we not surprised at anything that the gutter-dwelling slimball Slater gets up to?

    He is almost certainly being paid for this campaign, just like he is paid for many of his campaigns.

    • Yep this is classic Slater dragging the most creepy subjects through the media.

      He is a grotesque individual.

  3. What it does show is that Slater is connecting to people in the right wing of the US political system and that is quite tiresome enough on its own. It’s a clone of that other idiot Leighton Smith and his obsession with Fox News generated Causes Celebres.
    Abortion law is not an issue in New Zealand. By and large there is consensus that abortion is unpleasant, undesirable but legal. I can see no chance of that changing any time soon, these videos notwithstanding.

    • If that is the consensus, it is factually incorrect. Abortion is a crime (s 182 Crimes Act 1961), punishable by 14 years in prison. That’s why NZ women have to jump through so many hoops to access a safe, common medical procedure – to satisfy the requirements of an obsolete, dysfunctional legal framework.

      If you think abortion is unpleasant, check out open heart surgery – very unpleasant. And yet no one objects to it just because it’s gross. If you think abortion is undesirable consider what it would be like to be forced to endure the pain and danger of pregnancy and childbirth just because you can’t access abortion. Compulsory gestation is barbaric.

      Abortion is definitely an issue for those who need one.

      • I don’t resile from my comment. The termination of pregnancy is not nothing, so it should require serious consideration. When was the last time the criminal law was invoked?
        Unpleasant? Certainly, and not just because of the gore.
        Undesirable? It is. We shouldn’t destroy a life without being aware of what we are doing.
        Nothing in my comment negates the right of a woman to chose to terminate. (I mean have an abortion, for those who don’t understand the euphemism). I don’t deny that in many, many circumstances this abortion appears the only realistic option, and perhaps it is.
        My point is this: nothing comes for free. Every freedom has its cost and the cost is sometimes considerable.
        When we accept this we may well continue to promote progressive ideas, but more sadly, and perhaps a little more wisely.

    • For many people who find themselves pregnant and don’t want to be, aren’t ready to give birth or who may suffer serious consequences if they do, or the foetus would not survive, abortion is completely desirable.

      That’s why these people jump through so many hoops to get one.

      And if they can’t access a safe abortion they’ll access an unsafe one and risk their lives.

      Abortion is greatly desired by them.

  4. “What I do have a problem with, is where an ideology takes over people to the extent where the ethic to be honest and truthful – and responsible to the community around you – is forsaken for lying, manipulating , and making up ‘facts’ because the real facts don’t suit you”
    Sounds very much like the Green Party and their continued support and promotion of Kiwi Saver

    • “Sounds very much like the Green Party and their continued support and promotion of Kiwi Saver” Have you completely lost your sense of proportion or did you never have one in the first place?

  6. ………………………….
    “What I do have a problem with, is where an ideology takes over people to the extent where the ethic to be honest and truthful – and responsible to the community around you – is forsaken for lying, manipulating , and making up ‘facts’ because the real facts don’t suit you”
    Sounds very much like the Green Party and their continued support and promotion of Kiwi Saver

  7. What is wrong with this blog?
    “What I do have a problem with, is where an ideology takes over people to the extent where the ethic to be honest and truthful – and responsible to the community around you – is forsaken for lying, manipulating , and making up ‘facts’ because the real facts don’t suit you”
    Sounds very much like the Green Party and their continued support and promotion of Kiwi Saver

    • The solution for you is very simple: If you don’t like this blog then bugger off and find another one you do like, I suggest whaleoil might be a suitable one for you. That is, of course, assuming you haven’t been sent from there by whaleblubberman in the first place. Man, do I get sick of whinging right-wingers who come here expecting to be welcomed with open arms. If you come and spout your neo-liberalistic nonsense here then expect to be given some appropriate responses.

  8. There is no sensible explanation of the pro-life position because it always degenerates to a God said so argument which is clearly and demonstratively bollocks.

  9. Maybe hes just trying to find an opening for a job in America when his boss absconds there. we wont mind at all Two for the price of one,

  13. I know this is a dumb question, but what has Slater got to gain from publishing material that is well known to be faked? Is National going to make the next election a culture war? Great! NZ women are not going to give up their already limited reproductive rights easily. Bring it on, asshole.

    • The only thing he gains from posting this sort of story is money….and the favour of organisations wanting him to promote this type of garbage, faked, Faux-news.

Comments are closed.