Sex-selective abortion at Planned Parenthood?

Live Action, a pro-life advocacy group, released an undercover video yesterday recorded at a Planned Parenthood location in Austin, Texas. The "pregnant" operative tells the employee why she wants to kill her unborn baby.

"I see that you're saying that you want to terminate if it's a girl," the employee said, "so are you just wanting to continue the pregnancy in the meantime?" The so-called counselor informs the operative she can abort up to 23 weeks, and around that time, her baby's sex can be determined.

Watching the video (see below), I was surprised at this point that the employee didn't realize this must have been a weird joke or a sting. In its short history, Live Action has recorded Planned Parenthood employees lying about fetal development, advising operatives to lie about their age, and ignoring statutory rape laws. Do pregnant women typically tell the employees they want to abort because the baby is female?

The employee shared some personal details. She got on Medicaid "as if I was gonna continue my pregnancy," saw an OB-GYN, killed her unborn baby, and remained on Medicaid. Oh, and she's had two abortions. Nice female bonding moment. Just us girls exercising our right to privacy to get rid of our fetuses!

Counselor "Rebecca," who represents Planned Parenthood (although the abortion mill might claim rogue employee), advised the operative to see an OB-GYN to get an ultrasound to determine her baby's sex so she can return to Planned Parenthood and kill her if she's a girl. "Well, good luck," the counselor said as the operative is leaving, "and I hope that you do get your boy."

Sex-selective abortion is all the rage in countries like China and India. According to Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, by Mara Hvistendahl, mothers in these countries kill their female babies so often, the sex ratio is 121 boys born for every 100 girls in China and 112 boys born for every 100 girls in India. The natural sex ratio is 105 boys born for every 100 girls.

Sex-selective abortion hasn't seemed to have caught on in the United States … yet. Three states have banned abortions based on race and sex, and U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., re-introduced a bill that would do the same.

I'm ambivalent about such laws. In the first trimester, a woman can abort for any reason, and she doesn't have to share that reason with the abortionist. Abortion is the problem, whether based on race, sex, finances, or convenience. Killing a baby because she's female isn't worse than killing a baby because you want to spend the summer frolicking on a beach in your designer bikini. A dead baby is a dead baby.

But I'm not ambivalent about abortion. I oppose it even in cases of incest or rape. Why punish a baby for the circumstances of his or her conception? That tiny and vulnerable human being is precious, and his life has value, no matter how he was conceived.