Time Magazine Ignores Vote, Honors Planned Parenthood Prez

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 18, 2012   |   11:01AM   |   Washington, DC

Time magazine has, once again, honored Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards as one of the 100 most influential people in America despite the fact that a majority of Americans voted against including her in a poll it conducted.

LifeNews ran a campaign on Twitter, Facebook and other social media urging “no” votes in Time’s poll asking about which celebrities, innovators, sports figures, clergy, activists and politicians it should include in its annual compilation of the most influential people in the United States. Voting against Richards, who runs the biggest abortion business in America, ran at a 3-1 and 2-1 clip against including her for most of the voting process until a push by Planned Parenthood at the end of the campaign almost brought Richards to a 50-50 parity.

In the end, the last vote publicly displayed before Time pulled the voting at the end of the process, showed a 52-48 percentage point margin against including Richards. Despite that, Time chose to honor the Planned Parenthood president — by having feminist activist Sandra Fluke, made controversial by her promoting an Obama mandate that forces religious groups to purchase birth control and abortion-inducing drugs, write the effusive commentary about Richards.

Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards, 54, is a role model for all of us as she leads women in pursuit of unfettered access to health care and reproductive freedom. She is also my advocate and that of every woman in America, as I learned firsthand when I was publicly disparaged for speaking out on an issue she has been working on every day for years.

Our most basic health care needs — needs that impact our families and our larger economy — are still being questioned. As we look to inspire the next generation of women to join this fight, we’re fortunate to have Cecile as our mentor. There is no better advocate.

Richards tweeted her thanks to Time, saying, “Being named to the #Time100 is an incredible honor – and one I’m accepting on behalf of the millions who support Planned Parenthood. Thanks!”

This year, Richards placed 84th in the most influential list. Last year, Richards clocked in at the 69th most influential spot. She had been at a higher position, but a small campaign on Twitter led by some pro-life advocates like Bryan Kemper of Stand True helped lower her ranking as pro-life people were persuaded to visit the Time web site to declare the abortion mogul not influential.

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In its profile of Richards during the voting process, Time neglected to point out Planned Parenthood is a $1 billion abortion business that does more abortions than any other company in the United States. Instead, it profiles the dispute between the abortion giant and Komen for the Cure, which initially cut off funding for Planned Parenthood but then appeared to backtrack on its position by saying the abortion business is still eligible to apply for grants.

Time says:  “Planned Parenthood’s forces mobilized in opposition when seven states began to enforce laws requiring ultrasounds prior to abortions and other states proposed similar legislation. It also waged an extremely public battle with none other than breast-cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure after Komen decided to terminate grants to Planned Parenthood earmarked for breast-cancer screening for low-income women. Richards led the charge in persuading Komen to reverse its decision. For that, countless underserved women are grateful.”

When they think of Richards and Planned Parenthood, pro-life people recall Richards as someone who is fast and loose with the truth. Apart from misleading peopleabout the nature of her abortion business, she also lied about Planned Parenthood doing mammograms.

As LifeNews.com reported, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards joined the talk show of pro-abortion activist Joy Behar and defended Planned Parenthood against legislation in Congress seeking to revoke its federal taxpayer funding. There, she lied about what Planned Parenthood does.

“If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are going to lose their health care access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning – you know, mammograms,” she claimed.

Live Action released videotaped footage of calls to 30 Planned Parenthood centers nationwide in 27 different states where abortion facility staff were asked whether or not mammograms could be performed on site. Every one of the Planned Parenthood centers admitted they could not do mammograms. Every Planned Parenthood, without exception, tells the women calling that they will have to go elsewhere for a mammogram, and many clinics admit that no Planned Parenthood clinics provide this breast cancer screening procedure.

“We don’t provide those services whatsoever,” admits a staffer at Planned Parenthood of Arizona while a staffer at Planned Parenthood’s Comprehensive Health Center clinic in Overland Park, Kansas tells a caller, “We actually don’t have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”

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