Sarah Palin used the right-wing campaign against Planned Parenthood to swipe at opponents of the Confederate Flag - and pretend it's because she cares about black babies. That got her a Fox News prime time spot where, in a word salad, Palin accused Planned Parenthood of promoting abortions to black women for profit.
In case you missed it, here’s Palin's Facebook post that got almost 127,000 likes and 85,000 shares.
What’s especially despicable about it is that it’s little more than a poke in the eye of African Americans while feigning concern for black babies. Actually, the concern is for black fetuses. Because once those babies are born, Republicans' interest seems to end.
As Bob Cesca noted at Salon, abortion services account for just three percent of Planned Parenthood’s services. Their other services, such as pap smears to screen for cervical cancer, sexually transmitted infection tests and breast exams actually save lives of people outside the womb while contraception and vasectomy services prevent abortions. I noticed Palin didn’t offer minorities and poor people any alternative ways to get that medical care.
She did however grouse that people (i.e. African Americans) are “paying a whole lot more attention to the flag controversy than they are about what Planned Parenthood, their barbaric practices are.”
“Why did you zero in on black babies?” Planned Parenthood hater, Bill O’Reilly, asked Palin.
Other than inflammatory hate mongering, Palin had no answer. She called it an “easy comparison.” But, really, she only seemed to want to stick it to African Americans, especially if they want low-cost reproductive health services.
“They took down the flag but where is more of the outcry about what is actually going on with innocent human life?” Palin asked.
O’Reilly claimed that statistics show more black babies are aborted in New York City than white babies and theorized it “probably has to do with poverty.”
But Palin disagreed.
PALIN: Planned Parenthood is in the business of finding targets. So they may attract those who would be perhaps disadvantaged in some ways and be made to believe that abortion is their only option. That is why, Bill, 80% of Planned Parenthood shops are set up in minority neighborhoods. It’s tragic that they would make anybody, a minority even, feel that they’re not capable enough and they’re not able and supportive enough to … go through 40 weeks of a pregnancy in order to give their child life.
…They’re doing that because they have too many people deceived. They have leaders in some of these communities, including our president who would say, “God bless ya, Planned Parenthood. I’m there fightin’ with ya.” People deceived to make it sound like, “Oh my goodness, an innocent human life is disposable!”
O’Reilly pressed her again. “I just wanted to know if you think Planned Parenthood has a motivation to target minority women to come in and get their babies aborted,” he asked.
PALIN: Planned Parenthood is a bogus business. They’re in it to make money. They are in it to profit. And they have profited. And that’s why our tax dollars should not go to Planned Parenthood.
O’Reilly has made it clear he thinks Palin is an ignorant loon. And Palin almost certainly would have had another Katie Couric moment had he asked her to elaborate on Planned Parenthood’s financial status, how much profit it makes and how much it makes on abortion. But he didn’t, of course.
Watch it above, from the July 29 The O'Reilly Factor.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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