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WASHINGTON, June 5, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Planned Parenthood official has stated that the group “opposes sex-selection abortion” but that abortion is always a “complex” decision best left to the private realm – a statement that aligns with the group’s previous admittance that it is willing to perform them.

Planned Parenthood’s Director of Global Advocacy Chloe Cooney responded Monday to an op-ed by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith criticizing the abortion chain’s policy on sex-selective abortion. The pro-life lawmaker pointed to a Planned Parenthood official’s statement to the Huffington Post that the group provides “nonjudgmental care to all who come into” their clinics, and the Huffington Post writer’s explanation that, “That means that no Planned Parenthood clinic will deny a woman an abortion based on her reasons for wanting one.”

“In other words, Planned Parenthood is okay with exterminating a child in its huge network of clinics simply because she’s a girl,” Smith concluded.

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Without mentioning the official Planned Parenthood quotation, Cooney indicated that Smith’s “claim” rested on “a coordinated hoax patient campaign” designed to discredit Planned Parenthood.

“Mr. Smith asserted that Planned Parenthood supports sex-selection abortions. This is simply untrue. Planned Parenthood opposes sex-selection abortion,” said Cooney in a letter to the Washington Post. She then pointed out that Planned Parenthood had “extensive guidelines and training requirements” that the group responds to with “swift action” if not followed, while omitting the guidelines’ relationship to sex-selective abortions.

Cooney said that “racism and gender discrimination are serious issues in our country” but condemned a recent attempt by Congress to ban sex-selection abortion as “cast[ing] suspicion on doctors” who perform abortions in communities “facing the greatest health disparities,” in particular minority communities.

Asian-American communities, which import cultural son preference from countries such as India and China, have been pegged as more prone to aborting children because they are girls. In general, minority communities suffer an “abortion disparity,” aborting a disproportionately high percentage of unborn children compared to whites.

“Whatever one thinks about abortion, it is a deeply personal and complex decision that is best left to a woman, her family and her doctor,” she concluded.

Cooney’s letter comes amid several undercover video releases showing Planned Parenthood and NAF counselors coaching women on how to get a sex-selective abortion and evade the law.