The headline, “Forget the facts, full speed ahead” was an apt beginning to Jason Stanford’s column, defending Planned Parenthood and its executives.

He omits the fact that Planned Parenthood and its allies have effectively validated the videos, first by apologizing for the “tone” of the remarks they conveyed, and then by suing to stop their release, claiming invasion of privacy and violations of trade secrets.

Nor does Stanford mention that the Center for Medical Progress, which released the horrific videos that he called “obviously edited” took the full-length videos from which they were drawn and posted them on YouTube at the same time so that everyone could see whether anything was taken out of context.

Certainly Mr. Sanford is right that facts are important. We cannot have an honest debate about abortion unless we acknowledge exactly what it involves. These videos have played an important role in doing just that.

 

Linda Smith

Natchez