Gender A Role In Controvercial Abortion Legislation

(CNN) – What you’re looking at is a sting operation.  An anti-abortion actor, undercover at a Texas Planned Parenthood Clinic Pretending to want an abortion if she’s having girl. A planned parenthood staffer helps, giving detailed advice on how to find out the baby’s gender.

Planned Parenthood released a statement saying it “condemns sex selection motivated by gender bias” – and fired its employee caught on tape appearing to help do just that.

In another video from New York City a social worker doesn’t encourage aborting a female fetus, but doesn’t condemn it either.

It’s no accident that Lila Rose, a young anti-abortion activist whose group carried out the sting – released these edited videos this week.

Rose carefully coordinated with house republicans, pushing new anti-abortion legislation banning what they call “gendercide”.

Under the legislation, doctors who knowingly perform abortions chosen because of gender would face up to 5 years in prison, and fines.
Abortion providers could also be subject to civil penalties, including punitive monetary damages.

Republican authors of the bill cite multiple studies claiming evidence of a rising number of US abortions based on the sex of the fetus.
But abortion rights advocates take issue with the studies.

The reality is it’s hard to know the truth about such a private issue. Politically republicans are trying to turn the democrats charge that there’s a GOP war on women, on its head. Democrats called the legislation a political stunt.

The bill got 246 votes, well over a majority of support in the House.  But – it still didn’t pass.

Republicans who run the House structured this to allow only limited debate, but require a two-thirds majority to win approval.  That allowed GOP leaders to highlight the issue of abortion, but avoid an extended debate on it and take away from what they say is their number one political priority the economy.