Planned Parenthood reaps in about $550 million in taxpayer dollars from the federal government each year. Its CEO Cecile Richards made $590,928 in 2013 to oversee more than 300,000 unborn babies’ abortions.
But the future of Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, could depend heavily on who wins the upcoming presidential election. Pro-abortion Democrat Hillary Clinton is Planned Parenthood’s “champion,” and its CEO Cecile Richards has been involved heavily in Clinton’s campaign, traveling to dozens of states to stump for her.
On Tuesday, Richards stopped in Ames, Iowa to speak to young abortion advocates, including a group from Iowa State University, and urge them to vote for Clinton, the Ames Tribune reports. Clinton is struggling to gain support from young voters, according to recent polls; and Richards hinted at that during the campaign stop.
According to the report:
Richards told the crowd comprised partly of Iowa State University students that millennials could become the strongest voting bloc in the upcoming presidential election, and she believes Clinton’s campaign has the votes to win in the state.
According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of Iowa presidential preference polls, Trump leads Clinton by 4.8 points. President Barack Obama won Iowa by 5.8 points in 2012.
When asked by a student how Clinton could try to recreate Obama’s “cool factor” among younger voters, Richards admitted Clinton probably couldn’t do so, but Clinton’s government experience would make up for it.
“She’s not going to be a great politician, but she’ll be a great president,” she said.
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Richards also used the opportunity to criticize Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his strongly pro-life vice president Mike Pence.
“Everything (regarding reproductive rights) is on the ballot,” Richards said. “We believe women are the most qualified to determine their pregnancy, and the last thing we need is Trump and Pence telling us what to do.”
Trump has made some troubling comments about Planned Parenthood in the past, but he has been fairly consistent lately about his support for defunding it and giving those tax dollars to community health centers that offer comprehensive health care.
In September, Trump released a letter outlining his specific pro-life policies. One of them is to defund the abortion chain as long as it keeps killing unborn children. Trump also called to make permanent the Hyde Amendment, which bans direct taxpayer funding for abortions in Medicaid.
Clinton, on the other hand, promised abortion activists that she would work to repeal the Hyde Amendment and force taxpayers to fund abortions. If Clinton succeeds, the Guttmacher Institute estimates 33,000 more unborn babies will be killed in abortions every year. And Planned Parenthood, which already receives huge amounts of our tax dollars for what it says are non-abortion services, could benefit greatly.
A lot is at stake with the U.S. Supreme Court as well. The next president could nominate up to four justices to the court and sway its decisions on abortion and unborn babies’ rights for decades. Clinton promised to nominate justices who will uphold Roe v. Wade and abortion on demand up until birth.
