Cecile Richards: “I Appreciate Donald Trump’s Kind Words About Planned Parenthood”

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 24, 2016   |   4:19PM   |   Washington, DC

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been taking criticism from pro-life voters for his repeated claims that the Planned Parenthood abortion business does “good work” and “wonderful things.” Today the head of the abortion company took notice and said she appreciates Trump’s kind words about it.

“This is one thing I agree with Donald Trump on,” Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards said.

Below is the transcript and video of Richards’ interview with MSNBC:

MITCHELL: “Cecile, as the head of Planned Parenthood, you’ve been through the mill with all of the controversy in the past couple of months. Here is Donald Trump recently on ‘Meet The Press’ and he sounds like he is in your court. Let’s watch.”

[clip starts]
TRUMP: “They do some very good work, cervical cancer, lots of women’s issue — women’s health issues are taken care of….Planned Parenthood does a lot of good job — a really good job at a lot of different areas but not on abortion. So, I’m not going to fund it if it’s doing the abortion. I’m not going to fund it. Now they say it’s 3 percent and it’s 4 percent, some people say it’s 60 percent. I don’t believe it’s 60 percent by the way, but, I think it’s probably a much lower number. But Planned Parenthood does some very good work.”
[clip ends]

RICHARDS: “Well, this —“

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MITCHELL: “So, it’s a mixed blessing I guess. But, your response?”

RICHARDS: “Well, this is one thing I agree with Donald Trump on, is that Planned Parenthood does amazing work for 2 1/2 million patients every single year. I think the disturbing thing is that Donald Trump as well as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have said if they were president, they would end women’s access to family planning, to cancer screening, to basic affordable health care as well as overturning the Affordable Care Act which is now covering family planning and other preventive care for for 55 million women. That’s what’s really at stake here. And so, I appreciate his kind words. We’re very proud of our work, but I think women in this country and families and men are going to be very concerned about a president who wants to roll back access to affordable health care in America.”

Trump has pro-life voters in disagreement with each other about whether he is truly pro-life — as he calls for defunding Planned Parenthood on one hand while praising the abortion company on the other for it’s “good works” or good things.”

After his most recent comments saying , “I have many, many friends who are women, who understand Planned Parenthood better than you or I will ever understood it,” one MSNBC host said that may make Trump “more electable.”

Trump continues to claim that he opposes abortion and the abortion component of the Planned Parenthood abortion business and maintains he opposes federal taxpayer funding of the billion-dollar corporation.

“Planned Parenthood does a really good job at a lot of different areas. But not on abortion,” he said Sunday. “So I’m not going to fund it if it’s doing the abortion. I am not going to fund it.”

This past week, for the first time, Trump has specifically promised he would sign a bill as president to de-fund Planned Parenthood. Trump has repeatedly indicated he opposes Planned Parenthood funding but has always stopped short of committing to sign legislation to stop the flow of taxpayer funds to the nation’s biggest abortion business.

In a new interview with David Brody of CBN, Trump made that promise. Although his promise will go a long way towards reassuring pro-life voters he would implement specific pro-life policy on abortion as president, Trump continued to praise Planned Parenthood — following up on his “good things” and “wonderful work” comments that have turned off some pro-life voters.

Meanwhile, Trump said he thinks the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case that ushered in an era of 48 million abortions was “wrongly decided.” Trump said he would appoint “very good judges” who would ultimately “change it” but he opposed Roe without specifically saying it should be overturned.

In the last presidential debate, Trump feuded with Ted Cruz over the issue of Planned Parenthood funding. Cruz made the claim that Trump was a long-time supporter of abortion. Even though Trump has changed his mind and become pro-life, Cruz maintains that Trump supports taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion business.

As far as Trump’s comments on Planned Parenthood funding are concerned, Trump has fairly consistently said he opposes taxpayer funding but he’s also made some remarks about the “good things” Planned Parenthood does that have alarmed pro-life voters — as if any “good thing” could make up for the fact that planned Parenthood kills 330,000 unborn babies a year in abortions and then sells their body parts for profit.

Here are some of the headlines we’ve carried at LifeNews.com in recent months that provide further details on what Trump has said regarding Planned Parenthood funding:

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