As TPM and others reported last week, Planned Parenthood had alerted the FBI that some of its clinics had likely been targeted by right-wing activists claiming to run an interstate sex trafficking ring that involves minors and illegal immigrants. So that the anti-abortion group Live Action and its Andrew Breitbart megaphone Big Government are trumpeting the results of their "sting" comes as no surprise. What is ironic, though, is that some of the abuse of women they claim to decry would no longer be considered rape by House Republicans.
Among the charges leveled by Live Action President Lila Rose is an assertion that Planned Parenthood clinics refused to report allegations of statutory rape by underage girls:

In ten Planned Parenthood clinics, Live Action videos depict investigators posing as underage girls, as young as 13-years-old, saying they were impregnated by men over twice their age. Planned Parenthood's typical response? "Whatever you tell us stays within these walls" (Alabama). Or, "I didn't hear the age, I don't want to know the age" (Indiana). Or, "You don't have to say anything" (Arizona). Or, "Just say he's 15″ (Tennessee).

But according to the H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act, supported by 172 House Republicans and championed by Speak John Boehner as "one of our highest legislative priorities," those kinds of scenarios would no longer be defined as "rape" by the GOP. As the Washington Post explained:

Under the proposed language, however, rape becomes "forcible rape." Critics say the modifier could distinguish it from other kinds of sexual assault that are typically recognized as rape, including statutory rape and attacks that occur because of drugs or verbal threats.
"It speaks to a distinction between rape where there must be some element of force in order to rise to the standard, and rape where there is not," said Steph Sterling, director of government relations for the National Women's Law Center. "The concern here is that it takes us back to a time where just saying no was not enough."

As ThinkProgress described the impact of H.R. 3, "by narrowing the Hyde Amendment language, Republicans would exclude the following situations from coverage: women who say no but do not physically fight off the perpetrator, women who are drugged or verbally threatened and raped, and minors impregnated by adults." On Monday, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) summed up John Boehner's apparent priority:

"It is absolutely outrageous," Wasserman Schultz said in an exclusive interview late Monday afternoon. "I consider the proposal of this bill a violent act against women."
"It really is -- to suggest that there is some kind of rape that would be okay to force a woman to carry the resulting pregnancy to term, and abandon the principle that has been long held, an exception that has been settled for 30 years, is to me a violent act against women in and of itself," Wasserman Schultz said.

For decades, as Wasserman-Schultz suggested, the Hyde Amendment's prohibitions on federal programs funding for abortions has allowed exemptions in cases of rape and incest, and when the life of the woman is threatened. But Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, welcomed the new language, arguing, "We don't believe that the Hyde Amendment has ever been construed to permit federal funding for abortion based merely on the youth of the mother." Unsurprisingly, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) called H.R. 3 "unbelievably cruel and heartless toward survivors of rape and incest."
Already, the right-wing blogosphere is abuzz, echoing Live Action's predictable call for "Congress to immediately freeze all funding of Planned Parenthood" and "the Department of Justice and FBI launch a full-scale investigation of Planned Parenthood and prosecute the aiding and abetting of human trafficking." But as shamefully illustrated by H.R. 3 and John McCain's infamous "health of the mother" air quotes, the safety and well-being of American women apparently is not a priority for the Republican Party and its echo chamber,