Cecile Richards: Time for Women to Start Bragging About Their Abortions, Don’t be “Ashamed”

Opinion   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Dec 12, 2017   |   7:20PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards urged women to keep bragging about aborting their unborn babies to fight the Trump administration’s pro-life policies.

In a new interview with Democracy Now, Richards complained that the Trump administration is trying to protect unborn babies from abortion. She blasted his choices of Mike Pence and other strong pro-life advocates for top-level positions.

One of the things that Richards believes will make a difference is women who are willing to speak out proudly about their abortions.

The conversation began when host Amy Goodman asked Richards about the “Me too” movement, which exposes the sexual harassment and abuse that many women face.

“I think there’s some parallels in the reproductive health movement, in that for years women have been ashamed of sharing their own stories, including about abortion, abortion stories, and it is only now that women are sharing them on social media and that they’re being covered in the news as actually part of women’s healthcare …” Richards replied.

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She continued:

“The danger is what this administration is doing — and Vice President Mike Pence is the orchestra master on this — of putting people into places of authority that will now repeal and take away women’s rights, where we have actually no public discourse. You can look at Health and Human Services now. It has been completely stocked with people who are against not only Planned Parenthood, not only against safe and legal abortion, they’re against birth control now.”

But Richards and her abortion chain often silence the women whose abortion stories do not fit with their agenda. Movements like the Silent No More Awareness Campaign have documented thousands of stories of women who deeply regret aborting their unborn babies. These stories rarely receive mainstream media attention.

Unsurprising, the U.S. Justice Department’s criminal investigation of Planned Parenthood didn’t come up. The U.S. Department of Justice officially is investigating whether the abortion chain Planned Parenthood sold aborted babies’ body parts for profit.