The largest abortion provider in the United States gave an award to Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe last week to thank him for his support.
McAuliffe, a staunch abortion advocate, has a long record of siding with the abortion industry, rather than babies and moms.
For this, the Virginia affiliate of the abortion chain, the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood, presented McAuliffe with its Mary Anne Rennolds Award on Wednesday, WIRC News reports.
“The governor has been a champion for reproductive rights and protecting women’s health from the very beginning of his time in office,” said Allison Cooper, board chair of the abortion group.
Another radical pro-abortion group, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, also gave McAuliffe an award last week for his support, according to the report.
McAuliffe accepted both awards and claimed his pro-abortion position has helped women and the economy in Virginia.
“We are a different state today than we were three years ago,” he said while accepting the Planned Parenthood award. “Women are treated with dignity and respect, and that is how we’ve been able to create so many jobs – by being open and welcoming to everyone.”
McAuliffe has stood by his campaign promises to help the abortion industry.
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Earlier this year, he vetoed a bill to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion chain and promised to veto a late-term abortion ban. He even held a veto signing ceremony with abortion activists in February at the governor’s mansion.
McAuliffe, who received almost $1.5 million from the abortion industry for his election campaign, also made it a priority to weaken abortion clinic regulations, according to the Family Foundation of Virginia. The state adopted the regulations in 2011 to protect women and babies after the gruesome discoveries at Kermit Gosnell’s “house of horrors” abortion clinic in Philadelphia came to light.
The regulations have helped to protect women and babies in Virginia from shoddy abortion practices, including those of notorious abortionist Steven Brigham. The late-term abortionist lost his license to practice in five states, faced criminal charges for killing late-term babies, employed a sex offender and allegedly injured several women. In 2016, Virginia authorities shut down Brigham’s Fairfax abortion facility after discovering filthy, dangerous conditions during an inspection.
McAuliffe has faced wide-spread criticism from pro-life advocates and religious groups.
In February, Catholic leaders in Virginia publicly criticized McAuliffe for protecting the abortion industry rather than women and babies.
“Surrounded by Planned Parenthood supporters at a veto ceremony outside the Governor’s Mansion …, Gov. McAuliffe said his actions protected the rights and dignity of Virginia women – when, in fact, his actions harm the dignity of the women deceived by the multi-billion dollar abortion industry as well as the tiniest females, those still in the womb whose lives are brutally eliminated by abortion,” the Virginia Catholic Conference said in a statement.
Evangelical Christian leader Franklin Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, also criticized McAuliffe for supporting late-term abortions.
“When we are worried more about our state image and making money than about protecting the lives of babies in their mothers’ wombs, it’s obvious we have a big problem,” Graham wrote on Facebook in January.
Earlier that week, McAuliffe said he would veto a bill to prohibit late-term abortions after 20 weeks when strong scientific evidence indicates that unborn babies can feel pain. The governor claimed the bill would hurt the state’s image and economy.
“I can’t sit back and have that sitting out the same time I am traveling the globe recruiting businesses to Virginia,” McAuliffe said at the time. “If there’s something that would be damaging toward business, and to our image around the country and the globe, I’ll veto it, you bet I will.”
Graham said McAuliffe has his priorities “backwards,” and human lives are of much greater value than money.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States, aborting more than 300,000 unborn babies every year.
A recent congressional investigation into the abortion business involving its sales of aborted baby parts concluded with lawmakers recommended that Congress defund it. Planned Parenthood also has been caught in numerous scandals involving Medicaid fraud and failures to report suspected sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors.
Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood leaders refused an offer to receive an increase in taxpayer funding if they stopped doing abortions. CEO Cecile Richards called the offer “obscene and insulting,” making it very clear that abortions – not women’s health care – are essential to Planned Parenthood.
