The War on Agency, Continued

[Content Note: Anti-choice terrorism; war on agency.]

In good news: The Los Angeles Superior Court has issued a temporary restraining order which prevents the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any video of employees of StemExpress, a California company that provides fetal tissue to researchers. CMP, the organization releasing the videos to discredit Planned Parenthood, furtively filmed three StemExpress officials at a restaurant in May.

In a statement Wednesday, center leader David Daleiden said StemExpress was using "meritless litigation" to cover up an "illegal baby parts trade."

"The Center for Medical Progress follows all applicable laws in the course of our investigative journalism work," he said.

Dubious. Very dubious.

Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates are all showing their asses when it comes to defending reproductive rights and the people who provide abortions.

Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb have given no comment to news outlets asking them for one. Martin O'Malley's only comment I've been able to find was: "I haven't seen the videos. And I don't generally make a habit of responding to right-wing videos. [I will] defer to others for commenting on that video and whatever videos they're pumping out there."

In fairness to O'Malley, he was responding to a question from Fox News there, so it makes sense that he would respond by treating those videos with the contempt they deserve. But he has not, that I can find, issued any statement of support for Planned Parenthood.

Hillary Clinton hasn't done a whole lot better, frankly, saying that she has only seen pictures from the videos "and I obviously find them disturbing." (And, unfortunately, I don't think she meant, "I find them disturbing because they are a gross product of terrible people are participating in a brazen terrorist campaign against abortion providers.") She continued:

Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions. I think there are two points to make. One, Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services. And this raises not questions about Planned Parenthood so much as it raises questions about, you know, the whole process, that is, not just involving Planned Parenthood, but many institutions in our country. And if there's going to be any kind of congressional inquiry, it should look at everything and not just one part of it.

Question: Quick question, follow-up. As you mentioned out there, there is a fundamental right, or fundamental protection...

Clinton: Yes, that's what the Supreme Court said.

Question: Are you worried that the videos and the controversy might lead to activist groups chipping away at the funding for abortions and women's services?

Clinton: Well, there is no funding that, you know, would be any more at risk than it already has been for years because this has been an ongoing dispute, and I'm well aware that passions are very high. I have said for more than 22 years that abortion should be legal, safe, and rare. And as First Lady, I led an effort to try to lower the number of teen-age pregnancies and we succeeded, and as President I will continue to work toward that so that women are fully empowered, they can afford to make responsible decisions, and I hope that we will be successful with that.

Oof. I would have much preferred that Clinton not even give any credence at all to the idea of Congressional inquiries, even though I understand the point she's trying to make is that Planned Parenthood should not be targeted and singled out for "the whole process" of tissue donation. Really, that is just a subject that does not need a Congressional inquiry, period.

And I am for real for real for real tired of the "reduce teenage pregnancies" pivot on abortion. Lots of people need access to abortion, not just teenage girls with unplanned pregnancies. We could reduce the number of teenage pregnancies to zero, and lots of people would still need access to abortion.

Bernie Sanders started out absolutely dreadfully, saying [CN: video may autoplay at link]: "Obviously, I think [Planned Parenthood president] Cecile Richards apologized for the tone of that video. I think her apology was exactly right. I think that the staffer, the tone was terribly wrong." Tone policing? Really? Good grief.

But after Republicans escalated their efforts to exploit these videos to justify defunding Planned Parenthood, Sanders gave a pretty decent statement [CN: video may autoplay at link; NB: not only women need access to abortion]: "The attempt by Senate Republicans to cut off support for Planned Parenthood is an attack on women's health. The current attempt to discredit Planned Parenthood is part of a long-term smear campaign by people who want to deny women in this country the right to control their own bodies. Cutting that funding will be devastating to the health needs of millions of women who desperately need the quality services Planned Parenthood provides."

It never ceases to impress me (and not in a good way) how the ostensibly pro-choice Democrats refuse to say the word "abortion." Honestly, Democrats: If you can't even say the fucking word, you cannot expect me to believe you're going to vigorously defend it.

Also, the decade of failing to vigorously defend abortion rights and access as they have been eroded across state legislatures gives me the sense that you're not as pro-choice as you'd like me to believe. Funny how that works.

When the best any of the Democratic candidates can do in describing a decades-long terrorist campaign—which has resulted in more than 200 arsons and bombings, 4 kidnappings, 9 murders, and countless threats and incidents of harassment—is describe it as "long-term smear campaign," you are not a serious party that cares about reproductive options, the people who need them, and the people who provide them. Get it together, Democrats.

Naturally, every Republican candidate's response to these videos is so reprehensible it doesn't even merit comment.