Like most medical students, I took anatomy in my first year, spending hours dissecting a cadaver with five colleagues. Every five weeks, our full day of testing ended with a practical exam. It began by circulating through a room full of bodies guessing the name or function of parts identified with a pin and ended with an oral presentation of our knowledge using our own cadaver. Immediately after, we crossed the breezeway to have a beer from the keg kindly provided by our medical school.
After one particularly tough exam, twelve of us went to Chili’s, where we were seated at a long table in a bustling wing of the restaurant. Fifteen minutes later, it was empty except for us. I don’t know if patrons asked to be moved or the hostess just stopped seating people there, but I’m fairly sure our medical conversation was the reason.
I still talk differently in the company of other health care professionals, though I’ve learned how not to clear out a restaurant. Some of it is jargon and shorthand, but there is also a certain relief in being able to say things simply and factually, without someone yelling “Ick, gross!” or expecting me to share their disgust or discomfort at something I see every day or have been trained to take in my stride.
I’ve watched the video from the Center for Medical Progress’ sting operation against Planned Parenthood, and frankly all I see is a physician who thought she was among professional colleagues, which is understandable given that’s what they professed to be. She wasn’t disparaging of her patients, which is the part of back room chatter that does need to be eliminated. She simply told the blunt truth about procedures to people she had every reason to believe could handle it.
If that truth exposed illegal activity it should be investigated, but that seems unlikely if these were the most damning eight minutes in hours of tape. There may be ethical discussions regarding the impact of tissue saving maneuvers on the patient’s health, but it’s doubtful they would be retroactively actionable. Instead, the doctor’s biggest crimes may have been clearing out the table behind her (hard to prove since the time stamp comes and goes) and being able to swill wine and eat while talking about abortions. As uncomfortable as that might make some viewers, it doesn’t make the physician evil.
More importantly, it doesn’t negate the fact that millions of women depend on Planned Parenthood for their reproductive health, or that Planned Parenthood may be the only provider of safe, legal, abortions in some areas. Somehow, that didn’t make it into the video. Neither did the fact that abortions are a small fraction of the services Planned Parenthood provides, and tissue donation an even smaller portion.
The video isn’t journalism. It’s propaganda. Political strategists who don’t like abortions lied about who they were, made a physician from Planned Parenthood feel comfortable enough to bluntly talk shop, secretly taped her, edited the tape, and mixed in some old news footage and legal quotes so like-minded people would believe she admitted to something illegal and moderates would be grossed out. They’ve proven nothing. It’s a slick strategy, one they probably cooked up while swilling wine with colleagues and saying far more disturbing things about women and their doctors than was ever said about fetal organs. If only we had it on tape.
Well done, thank you. I’ve shared and reshared. #istandwithpp