News

By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Citizens for a Pro-Life Society (CPLS) say that their video depicting the Catholic funeral and burial ceremonies of abortion victims has been censored by the video-sharing site YouTube – which now has an established reputation for removing pro-life videos and issuing “warning strikes” against their owners' accounts.

CPLS reports that YouTube pulled the original five-minute film “Requiem for the Disappeared” on August 29.  The film shows the remains of 23 unborn children whose bodies were buried after being salvaged last year from trash dumpsters behind abortionist Alberto Hodari's Womancare abortion clinic in Lathrup Village, MI., and abortionist Reginald Sharpe's Women's Advisory abortion clinic in Livonia, MI.  The video is accompanied by the song “Tell Me Who I Am,” which was crafted for the video and produced by Mediatrix Records.

(The video can be viewed through Yahoo! Video here)

“Requiem for the Disappeared” is the third CPLS video removed by YouTube, who also issued a warning strike against the group's account. YouTube indicated that the video was removed for violating the site's prohibition against images “intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful.” 

According to the site's guidelines: “if a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional educational or documentary context and information.”

CPLS argues that the images of the children's' remains were given appropriate and respectful context, and were not intended to shock, saying the video was “obviously crafted to teach, to provoke thought, to provide a moral lesson.” 

The group said it was considering legal action against YouTube.

“I feel strongly that we must call You Tube to responsibility,” said CPLS director Monica Migliorino Miller. “It's obvious that pro-lifers are consistently discriminated against on this website.”

In August, YouTube removed a video (available here) published by Operation Rescue showing the abusive behavior of a man working for Nebraska abortionist LeRoy Carhart against a pro-lifer.  YouTube indicated that the video inappropriately used the site as a “venue for things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people's personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts.”

“I completely resent the outrageous and false notion that the video was in anyway abusive on our part,” said Operation Rescue's Cheryl Sullenger. “The threats and intimidation shown in this video were made by the Carhart employee against the pro-life photographer, Larry Donlan.  I posted the video with his permission so that the world could see the truth about the abuse and threats that pro-lifers are forced to endure.” 

Earlier that month, Live Action Films launched a petition against YouTube's attack against pro-life videos. Live Action has had several of its videos exposing controversial and illegal practices by Planned Parenthood pulled from the site. 

“Youtube claims to be free of ideological censorship,” said Live Action Films president Lila Rose.  “But they are clearly censoring an opinion they dislike, an opinion that goes against Planned Parenthood – which, as many are open about, has a good deal of influence in a lot of mainstream media, and now sadly in the new media, in YouTube.” 

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Live Action Launches Petition Against YouTube for Censoring Videos
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09080302.html

YouTube Yanks another Pro-Life ExposÚ Video
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09072109.html

YouTube Bans New Video of Planned Parenthood Telling Customer Abortion Photos “Not Real”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062503.html

YouTube Blocks Videos Exposing Planned Parenthood's Support for Race-Selective Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090409.html