In late August, Bill Maher’s HBO show Real Time featured a segment on the Planned Parenthood fetal body parts harvesting scandal. Maher and his pal Wendy Davis smugly eye-rolled the notion that Planned Parenthood was guilty of any wrongdoing, while U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher attempted to state facts in which the other two had no interest.
Watch the exchange below:
First, Maher takes a page from the mainstream media playbook on Planned Parenthood reporting: Deflect attention from the actual scandal by blowing Republican backlash massively out of context. To do this, Maher noted that some Republican presidential nominees have crossed over from “extremism to absolutism” by suggesting that preborn Lives should be protected without exception. But Rep. Rohrabacher steered the conversation back to the point, which is that Planned Parenthood has been documented discussing the sale of human body parts, which is illegal.
Again, attempting to deflect attention from the actual scandal by introducing a diabolical element of humor into the conversation, Maher retorted: “You make it sound like they’re killing babies and selling them to carnivals.” Maher then made a statement that betrayed his ignorance of actual video footage filmed inside of Planned Parenthood abortion mills in the third and fifth video releases, saying: “They’re not body parts – they’re fetal tissue. Body parts! You make it sound like Frankenstein is in there! They’re not body parts!” (Maher seems convinced that repetition of an untruth may magically render the statement true.)
But Rohrabacher was undeterred, responding to Maher’s verbal insanity coolly with an indisputable fact: “If you can identify an organ of the body then that is a body part.” But Wendy Davis was quick to toe the subject-changing line as Maher’s talking points were exhausted, cutting Rohrabacher off mid-sentence with an utter non sequitur about how conservative politicians were just using opposition to Planned Parenthood because Pro-Life sentiment is currently in fashion (and thus likely to garner votes).
“It is truly political demagoguery of the very worst kind,” Davis said against a backdrop of applause, going on to bemoan Planned Parenthood’s 2011 defunding in Texas and even positing that there are women who have cancer today in Texas because Planned Parenthood was defunded. Davis was dismayed to discover that Rohrabacher knew about the nine thousand federally qualified health centers that provide healthcare to populations who need care the most, however, shutting down Davis’ fantastical notion that Planned Parenthood is necessary for the wellbeing of women. Defeated, Davis resorted to the PP myth that 97% of PP’s services are not related to abortion. Yawn.
