Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards made a lot of public appearances in 2015 after her abortion business was caught selling aborted babies body parts.
Head of the largest abortion business in the U.S., Richards was forced to go on the defense as Americans called for the abortion giant to be investigated and defunded of more than half-a-billion in taxpayer dollars each year. She testified before a U.S. Congressional committee and made numerous media appearances in an attempt to paint the abortion giant in a positive light.
Here are just nine of Richards’ most eye-opening statements from 2015:
“We do not have mammogram machines at our health centers and we’ve never stated that we did.”
Richards’ quote is significant because she basically admitted to a U.S. Congressional committee in September that she lied about Planned Parenthood providing mammograms.
On February 21, 2011, Richards told talk show host Joy Behar that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms: “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, cancer screenings, cervical cancer.”
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“Put simply: a 20-week abortion ban lacks compassion & it lacks respect.”
Richards tweeted this in May after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The federal bill would end abortions on babies in the womb who feel pain – but apparently ending painful, later abortions on unborn babies is not “compassionate,” according to Richards. Richards also claimed the bill would “hurt women.”
In a November interview with Katie Couric, Richards defended aborting her unborn baby for birth control reasons.
She told Couric: “It was a personal decision. And we have three children that we adore and that are the center of my life. And we decided that was as big as our family needed to be. That was really the story. It wasn’t anything more dramatic than that. But I can’t imagine a woman being in that circumstance — with an unintended pregnancy–and not being able to make her own decision about that pregnancy.”
Richard issued this apology after the Center for Medical Progress released its first video showing top Planned Parenthood employee Deborah Nucatola discussing how they crush and sell aborted babies’ body parts as she ate lunch.
When a U.S. Congressional committee later questioned Richards about what she was apologizing for, Richards would not say. Instead, she backtracked, claiming it was “inappropriate to have a clinical discussion in a non-confidential setting in a nonclinical setting
Richards defended her abortion business in an interview with ABC News after the Center for Medical Progress released its first two undercover videos. The videos showed several top Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted babies’ body parts.
More recently, several state investigations prompted by the videos have uncovered potentially illegal activity, including in South Carolina and Ohio. Several U.S. Congressional investigations of the abortion industry also are on-going.
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“We don’t provide abortions after viability.”
Richards response came in answer to a U.S. Congressman’s question about what should be done if a baby survives an abortion. Richards said she was not aware of any babies surviving abortions at Planned Parenthood facilities.
However, National Right to Life Committee Director of Education Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon wrote in 2013 that Planned Parenthood does do abortions on babies who are viable.
“The truth is that Planned Parenthood clinics advertise and perform abortions well into the second trimester, even up to 24 weeks (with hints it can ‘help’ if the woman is even more advanced),” O’Bannon wrote.
A study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine recently found that 23 percent of infants born at 22 weeks of pregnancy (or 20 weeks after fertilization) are surviving with treatment.
Richards griped to MSNBC after a U.S. Congressional committee questioned her about Planned Parenthood selling aborted babies’ body parts and making a profit on abortions while getting half a billion in taxpayer funding. Questions about how much money Richards makes (over half a million) as head of the nation’s biggest abortion business prompted Democrats on the committee to complain that Republicans were engaging in sexist attacks. Richards agreed.
Abortion is “key to women’s opportunity”
In an April 28 piece for TIME, Richards praised actress Jemima Kirke for publicly sharing her abortion story. Kirke claimed that aborting her unborn baby helped her through difficult economic circumstances.
“Jemima’s story was also a reminder that the ability to decide when or whether to have children is key to women’s opportunity to be financially secure and pursue their dreams,” Richards said.
Pro-lifers “feed domestic terrorism”
Less than 24 hours after a lone gunman shot a dozen people outside a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, the CEO of the abortion company issued a fundraising email essentially blaming pro-life people for the shooting, saying the “feed domestic terrorism.”
Planned Parenthood officials confirmed that none of the three people killed in the shooting or the nine victims who were injured were Planned Parenthood abortion clinic staff or patients. Local police officials continue to say they have no motive for the attack and they caution against speculation of a motive until more facts are gathered in the case.
