Opinion: Yes, The Times really defended anti-Planned Parenthood activists
Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, The Times’ letters editor, and it is Saturday, April 1, 2017. President Hillary Clinton will later today announce her administration’s historic commitment to greenhouse gas emissions targets that are more ambitious than those sought by the Paris climate agreement, renewing hope that humanity can avert the worst effects of climate change.
Here’s a look back at the week in Opinion.
Yes, this newsletter’s introduction contains an April Fool’s Day joke, but what you’re about to read actually happened: The Times Editorial Board this week came to the defense of anti-abortion activists who allegedly resorted to blatantly dishonest tactics in order to undermine Planned Parenthood.
On Tuesday, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra announced that his office was filing 15 felony charges against the two activists who surreptitiously recorded Planned Parenthood officials talking about the donation of fetal tissue for research. The Times Editorial Board called Becerra’s action “disturbingly aggressive”:
There’s no question that anti-abortion activist David Daleiden surreptitiously recorded healthcare and biomedical services employees across the state of California with the intent of discrediting the healthcare provider, Planned Parenthood — something his heavily edited videos failed to do. There’s also no question that it’s against state law to record confidential conversations without the consent of all the parties involved.
But that doesn’t mean that California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra should have charged Daleiden and his co-conspirator, Susan Merritt, with 15 felony counts — one for each of the 14 people recorded, and a 15th for conspiracy. It's disturbingly aggressive for Becerra to apply this criminal statute to people who were trying to influence a contested issue of public policy, regardless of how sound or popular that policy may be. Planned Parenthood and biomedical company StemExpress, which was also featured in the videos, have another remedy for the harm that was done to them: They can sue Daleiden and Merritt for damages. The state doesn’t need to threaten the pair with prison time. …
Daleiden describes the effort as journalism, although his methods were decidedly not those employed by respectable reporters. He and Merritt allegedly concocted fake identities and business records to dupe Planned Parenthood officials into taking the pair into their confidence, and misrepresented themselves throughout. Nevertheless, as misguided as they were, their aim was to change people’s views on important and controversial issues — abortion and fetal tissue research.
In similar cases, we have denounced moves to criminalize such behavior, especially in the case of animal welfare investigators who have gone undercover at slaughterhouses and other agricultural businesses to secretly record horrific and illegal abuses of animals. That work, too, is aimed at revealing wrongdoing and changing public policy.
That’s why the state law forbidding recording of conversations should be applied narrowly, and to clear and egregious violations of privacy where the motive is personal gain.
Our editorial was noticed, including by abortion foes. A blogger with the conservative Washington Examiner writes that “politics can make for strange bedfellows, perhaps none stranger than the Los Angeles Times editorial board and James O'Keefe.” The Hill judged the editorial newsworthy enough to merit its own report. Hot Air, SarahPalin.com, Fox News and NewsBusters also took note.
This ex-congressman lost his seat over Obamacare, and he doesn’t regret his vote. Tom Perriello, a Democrat running for governor of Virginia and a former member of Congress who lost reelection after casting a vote in favor of the Affordable Care Act, said he was warned his job would in jeopardy if he sided with President Obama in 2010, but today he does not regret his support for the law. He writes: “Hundreds of Americans have reached out to tell me how the ACA has helped them personally: parents who obtained life-saving treatment for their adult children because they were able to keep them on their insurance plans; workers who left dead-end jobs to pursue their dreams, secure in the knowledge that they could buy insurance on newly created exchanges.” L.A. Times
The family that sleeps together stays together. When in human history before industrialization did children sleep apart from their parents? Never, writes Benjamin Reiss, and our insistence that parents and children slumber in separate parts of the house has numerous ripple effects in society, including larger houses that consume more energy and strained family ties. “Far from being a backward practice, co-sleeping, or at least sleeping in close proximity, may be a more enlightened, sustainable use of space and natural resource,” Reiss says. L.A. Times
Do you live in Devin Nunes' district? Call his office, now. The House Intelligence Committee chairman has all but completely stalled his committee’s investigation of Russian meddling in the presidential campaign. In so doing, says contributing writer Conor Friedersdorf, he has done a grave disserve to this nation, and voters in his district need to do something about it: “So far, Speaker Paul Ryan is standing by Nunes, but the people of Fresno, Clovis, Tulare and Visalia have the power — as Trump might put it — to drain the swamp.” L.A. Times
Here’s one campaign promise Trump may actually fulfill: defeating Islamic State ASAP. Civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria have increased since the new president took office, but Trump still deserves credit for helping to move the offensive against Islamic State rapidly toward success, writes Doyle McManus. L.A Times
Reach me: paul.thornton@latimes.com
