Tonight on his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly interviewed Abby Johnson about the recent “controversy over Planned Parenthood.” Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director, expressed support for Republicans' attempt to defund the health care provider, claiming that Planned Parenthood “does not provide quality health care” and therefore does not “have the right to use our tax dollars.”
O'Reilly and Johnson also discussed the recently released undercover videos purporting to show that Planned Parenthood abets the sex trafficking of minors. When asked by O'Reilly to comment on the videos -- specifically on the Planned Parenthood workers “advising people they thought were pimps and prostitutes underage how to get around the system” and “how to not report statutory rape” -- Johnson said that "[i]t happens all the time." She added: “It happened at my clinic. Absolutely, I let it happen.”
Contrary to the claim that Planned Parenthood aided sex traffickers, the organization alerted the FBI to the incidents before the videos were even released -- a fact their neither O'Reilly nor Johnson mentioned during the interview. And why would they have? After all, Johnson now serves as the Chief Research Strategist for Live Action, the anti-abortion organization that produced the videos.
Johnson claimed during the interview that she left Planned Parenthood “after seeing an ultrasound guided abortion and watching a 13 week old baby fight for its life.” Johnson was put on a “performance improvement plan” just three days before leaving the organization and appearing at the pro-life Coalition for Life. While this does not disprove the reason she gave for leaving the organization, it does raise the possibility that Johnson had a grievance with Planned Parenthood that extends beyond their abortion services.
