Planned Parenthood President: My 400K Salary a “Non-Issue”

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 19, 2011   |   11:04AM   |   Washington, DC

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, gave an interview to a newspaper in Oregon during a recent trip there to support a local affiliate of the abortion business. During the interview, Richards defended her exorbitant salary, saying it is a “non-issue.”

The Willamette Week newspaper asked her, “In the efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, a lot was made of your salary—close to $400,000 per year. Planned Parenthood declined to comment on it. Why?”

“It’s public record. It always has been,” Richards responded. “I work hard for my salary, and I think that’s a red herring. Planned Parenthood is the most cost-effective provider of family planning services in this country. The far right has done everything they can to undermine us and to create non-issues, which I think that is.”

The high salary is not surprising given that the abortion business makes more than $1 billion in income. First achieved in its 2006-2007 fiscal year, the abortion business now regularly brings in more than $1 billion. That’s because the abortion business, that year, was doing more abortions than ever before. Its annual report showed an increase in the number of provided abortions from 264,943 in 2005 to 289,650 in 2006.

More recent figures show, in 2009 alone, Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions. Since the average cost of an abortion was $468, Planned Parenthood’s total abortion income that year was $155 million. In light of their total “health center” income of $404,900,000, Planned Parenthood made out like bandits with abortion, which generated 38.4% of this total revenue.

Meanwhile, in the new interview, Richards defends Planned Parenthood’s opposition to laws which allow women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child — something Richards claims is allowed even though women who have had abortions there say they are frequently denied the opportunity to see it.

“Do you believe laws requiring women to receive sonograms prior to abortions affect their decisions to have an abortion?” the newspaper asks.

“We always counsel women on all their options if they have an unintended pregnancy. What we have found historically is that women make incredibly responsible decisions. The thing that is really disturbing about most of these laws is that they basically assume women are incapable of making their own personal, responsible decisions about their health care,” Richards said.

“But these laws push women to get more information before making a decision,” the newspaper added — which prompted Richards to attack pro-life male legislators.

“Legislators, most of whom will never be pregnant, [are] writing their own ideas about what doctors should be telling their patients. It assumes doctors aren’t responsible, that they have to be led by the legislature to tell women what to think. Most legislation being passed contains erroneous information. It’s not even medically accurate. It assumes that women won’t have the wherewithal to actually talk to their doctor about keeping a pregnancy or whatever alternatives there are,” Richards responded.

Richards also showed she has no interest in making abortion rare. When asked by the newspaper, “Bill Clinton spoke about keeping abortion legal and rare. Are we closer to his vision?” Richards doesn’t mention abortion — preferring to attacking prolife lawmakers in Congress who want to revoke taxpayer funding for the abortion business.