WASHINGTON — The undercover videos were made over more than two years, yet Planned Parenthood was taken by surprise when the first one was posted online in July.
Now one of the biggest crises in the 99-year history of the organization, the nation’s largest provider of women’s reproductive health care, could reach a conclusion this week as conservatives want to shut down the government rather than help fund the group.
Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood’s executive vice president, recalled that after an aide alerted her to the initial video by the little-known Center for Medical Progress, an antiabortion group, she thought: “This is not new” — Planned Parenthood had faced such tactics before — “but it’s a new low. And it is going to have reach.”
Immediately the organization was caught in a storm of internal confusion and defensiveness. There was disquiet among Democratic allies as Republicans, who control Congress and many state capitols, charged that the nonprofit organization was criminally “profiteering in baby parts.” A new video surfaced almost every Tuesday.
But Planned Parenthood has fought back and managed to put some opponents on the defensive after gathering information from its affiliates; hiring lawyers, crisis managers, and video experts to document deceptive edits; and working to solidify support among donors, Democrats, and, according to polls, a majority of Americans.
The nonprofit group has planned scores of Pink Out rallies nationwide on Tuesday. Supporters will travel by bus to Washington with a pro-Planned Parenthood petition bearing nearly 2 million signatures.
Chapters in about 23 cities will offer free tests for sexually transmitted infections to underscore the services — including contraceptives, cancer screening, and routine exams mainly for low-income clients — that Planned Parenthood provides more commonly than abortions.
About half of its nearly 700 clinics do not perform abortions, and federal law has long barred funding for most procedures.
Only a few affiliates in three West Coast states have arrangements with researchers to provide tissue from aborted fetuses or, in Oregon, fetal placentas. As doctors captured in the videos describe, fees of $30 to $100 a specimen cover costs rather than providing profits, which would be illegal.
Many Republicans say the videos prove that Planned Parenthood is harvesting and selling baby parts. Greg Mueller, who heads a conservative communications firm working with the videos’ producer, said even some supporters of abortion rights were “repulsed.”
“No amount of spending or spin is going to change that,” he said.
Mueller cited findings from focus groups that were moderated last week in Denver by Kellyanne Conway, a Republican pollster. Conway, in an interview, did not dispute the accuracy of polls showing consistent support for Planned Parenthood and against defunding it.
Underlying Planned Parenthood’s show of confidence, however, is concern that living under political threats is its new normal in a country that has become even more polarized in the wake of the videos. Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards, must testify Tuesday before one of several congressional committees are investigating the group.
“We may be at a political crossroads where the right has a resurgence,” said Ellen Chesler, a former Planned Parenthood board member and biographer of Margaret Sanger, founder of the birth-control movement.
“I think this is becoming more and more of a concern,” she added. “The politics is so totally unpredictable and unknowable.”
Certainly the politics were unpredictable when David Daleiden began releasing the videos he produced from recordings collected over 30 months of infiltrating clinics and tissue procurement companies. To gain trust, he formed a fake company and participated in professional conferences.
“Everyone was taken aback to discover just how extensive the operation had been,” said Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director under President Obama and a partner in SKDKnickerbocker, a consulting firm advising Planned Parenthood.
Dunn said Planned Parenthood had three immediate challenges: to answer the attack, to simultaneously query 67 affiliates about which ones had tissue programs or contacts with the abortion opponents, and to reassure supporters and political allies.
The group has relied almost solely on Democrats since abortion opponents gained sway over the Republican Party in the Reagan era. Its heft with Democrats flows from its grass-roots support and willingness to spend freely on advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Laguens of Planned Parenthood acknowledged the difficulty of quickly rebutting attacks even as her group was gathering facts. But, she added: “I’m 100 percent sure we are not trafficking in baby parts. So I didn’t have any hesitation, and Cecile didn’t have any hesitation.’’