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Planned Parenthood: Employee featured in the Live Action sting has been fired

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The Planned Parenthood Federation of America employee seen instructing a Live Action investigator how to obtain an abortion if the child is a female in a new hidden camera video has been fired, Planned Parenthood told The Daily Caller Tuesday.

According to Leslie Kantor, a vice president for education at PPFA, an entry-level staffer — identified in the pro-life group’s sting video as Rebecca — did not follow protocol and was fired within three days of the consultation.

“Six weeks ago a former staff member serving in an entry-level position did not follow our protocol for providing information and guidance when presented with a highly unusual patient scenario,” Kantor wrote in an emailed statement. “Planned Parenthood insists on the highest quality patient care, and if we ever become aware of a staff member not meeting these high standards, we take swift action.”

“Within three days of this patient interaction, the staff member’s employment was ended and all staff members at this affiliate were immediately scheduled for retraining in managing unusual patient encounters,” Kantor continued.

Planned Parenthood also reiterated its opposition to sex-selective abortions, and said that the practice is against everything the organization represents.

“Gender bias is contrary to everything our organization works for daily in communities across the country. Planned Parenthood opposes racism and sexism in all forms, and we work to advance equity and human rights in the delivery of health care,” Kantor said.

“Planned Parenthood condemns sex selection motivated by gender bias, and urges leaders to challenge the underlying conditions that lead to these beliefs and practices, including addressing the social, legal, economic, and political conditions that promote gender bias and lead some to value one gender over the other.”

According to PPFA, Live Action’s sting is a “hoax” showing “highly unusual scenarios.”

“Recently, opponents of Planned Parenthood conducted hoax patient visits with hidden video cameras and are now using edited videotapes to promote false claims about our organization and patient services,” Kantor wrote. “In highly unusual and scripted scenarios, hoax patients sought services related to sex selection.”

Kantor concluded that while the organization obviously is opposed to gender-selection abortion, reducing abortion services is not the way to end the practice.

“The world’s leading women’s health and rights organizations, including the World Health Organization, do not believe that curtailing access to abortion services is a legitimate means of addressing sex selection, and have made clear that gender bias can only be resolved by addressing the underlying conditions that lead to it,” Kantor wrote. “And we agree.”

“We support efforts that ensure girls and women have access to economic opportunity, including fair wages, basic health care, political participation, education, and a life free of violence and discrimination. Planned Parenthood works to ensure women and their families have access to high-quality nonjudgmental health services free of coercion, supported by information and counseling.”

The Huffington Post’s Laura Bassett interpreted Kantor’s concluding sentence to mean that “no Planned Parenthood clinic will deny a woman an abortion based on her reasons for wanting one, except in those states that explicitly prohibit sex-selective abortions (Arizona, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Illinois).” TheDC has reached out to PPFA for further clarification.

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