Live Action Idiots Falsely Seeking Info on Your Uterus

Live Action, a “new media movement for life,” whose 24-year-old founder is willing to die for the anti-abortion movement, is at it again with their interfering-with-women’s-reproductive-rights hijinks. I know it’s a tired refrain but can someone please get these people a hobby? I’d be happy to buy them their first Beanie Baby, or create an Etsy store for their hand-knit Confederate Flag beer cozies, or something.

Unfortunately, until these “people” find any real happiness in their lives, we’ll have to deal with their bizarre and potentially harmful antics — this time, it’s creating a “joke” website. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund believes that the benevolent tricksters at Live Action posted a website for an “apparently fake medical clinic purporting to offer nonexistent abortion services and soliciting personal information from unsuspecting potential patients.”

Hilarious prank, you guys. It’s super great to target the mostly low-income women who rely on real clinics for pap smears, breast exams, and other vital health care necessities. You’re not at all the worst fucking people on earth.

“This appears to be an elaborate hoax, less than four weeks before an
election with enormous stakes for women’s health,” said Dawn Laguens,
executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “It is
outrageous that opponents of women’s health would lie to the public and
put real women at risk. They know their only hope to overturn Roe v Wade
and to defund Planned Parenthood is to elect Mitt Romney, and it’s now
clear there is nothing they won’t do to press their extreme agenda on
America’s women.”

And it’s not just websites they’re falsifying, they’re also apparently creating fake people to wreak havoc. Live Action allegedly sent operative “Wendy Wilmowski” into the field to infiltrate seedy back alley abortion emporiums by pretending to be a high-profile donor. (Read: Ask awkward questions at four totally legit health advocacy organizations by actually being a high-profile lunatic.)

Thankfully, the Live Action folks aren’t that bright and the people working at the four organizations — Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, EMILY’s List and Priorities USA — quickly became aware that there was more to Wilmowski than met the eye.

“She showed up unannounced at our office on a Wednesday, claiming that she wanted to make a sizeable contribution to our electoral efforts. That raised a red flag right away,” said Beth Shipp, political director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. She said NARAL sent lower-level staffers from its development team to meet with the woman at a Caribou Coffee in Washington, D.C., on October 5 because it was a “high-trafficked public place.”

Planned Parenthood Action Fund became so suspicious of the woman that they set up a second meeting with her to get a better image of her face on the security camera. When the woman returned, the security guard asked for her identification, and she presented a Costco ID that listed her name as “Wendy Wilmowski.”

I’d kinda love to see that card; I’m imagining that it’s just a piece of cardboard with Co$tC0 written on top in crayon and perhaps a low-res photo of the Hamburglar pasted on. I believe that’s about what Live Action is capable of producing at this point.

Fortunately, one of the organizations, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, is fighting back:

PPAF has taken steps to retaliate against Live Action by writing a letter to California Attorney General Kamala Harris requesting that her office investigate Wilmowski’s fake website and, if necessary, prosecute the people involved.

“If this medical website is a hoax and is falsely holding out services to women in need, it should be immediately taken down and the persons responsible for the site should be held accountable,” Laguens wrote in the letter, dated October 11. “Politicizing women’s health by creating false identities and advertising sham medical services should be widely condemned by all.”

Go on, Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Live Action’s grasp on reality and cultural relevancy — or whatever existed of it in the first place — has clearly weakened to near extinction, and poorly executed stunts like this strike me as a pretty pathetic last gasp. However, it also serves as an important reminder to get out there on November 6th and vote like your life depends on it — because, frankly, it kinda does.

Live Action Undercover ‘Sting’ Targeting Four Women’s Advocacy Groups [Huffington Post]
Women are Watching [Planned Parenthood Action Fund]