Bill O’Reilly isn’t one to hold back his opinions — that’s why he has the highest rated news show on cable television. On Tuesday evening, O’Reilly fumed about the alleged Planned Parenthood controversy, where the organization had allegedly been selling organs of aborted babies. He started his show off on talking about demonstrations .
“Today pro-life Americans in more than 50 cities protested against Planned Parenthood after gruesome undercover videos showed the organization selling the organs of dead babies.”
The show then went into videos that featured statements from Senator Ted Cruz and the actual undercover incident that started the controversy. Then, Mr. O’Reilly became really angry.
“Very quietly an industry that harvests and sells body parts from aborted babies has developed in the USA. Planned Parenthood is part of that industry. It does business with a company called StemExpress based in Placerville, California.”
Bill O’Reilly then accused StemExpress of buying bodies from Planned Parenthood as well as other abortion providers and then selling them for medical research. However, there are people who think the whole Planned Parenthood controversy is being drummed up. According to Politico , Nancy Pelosi is one of them.
“They’ve been out to get Planned Parenthood for as long as I can remember. This is about women’s health. Planned Parenthood has said they have done nothing illegal. They were not ever charged,” Ms. Pelosi recently said.
Politico goes on to note that Pelosi believes that the controversy certainly doesn’t exist. However, they also note that Republicans are adamant that the video clearly shows wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood. The New York Times also believes that Planned Parenthood is in the midst of a faux controversy .
“A hidden-camera video released last week purported to show that Planned Parenthood illegally sells tissue from aborted fetuses. It shows nothing of the sort…Clearly, the shorter version was edited to eliminate statements by Dr. Nucatola explaining that Planned Parenthood does not profit from tissue donation, which requires the clear consent of the patient.”
The New York Times goes on to note that according to a letter sent by Roger Evans, who is a lawyer for Planned Parenthood, the edited video is a result of a huge campaign of deception. Of course, not everybody is buying into this. There is one thing to consider: An election year is coming up, so it’s quite possible that the right wing could be exploiting the anti-abortion sentiments of their biggest voters. However, it’s also possible that Bill O’Reilly and others are angry about a real problem here.
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