Planned Parenthood CEO Says Fighting for Abortion is Similar to “the Civil Rights Movement”

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Dec 1, 2016   |   12:22PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood enjoyed eight years of unquestioning support from President Barack Obama and his administration, but the abortion chain knows its good days won’t last much longer.

During a speech Tuesday to University of Chicago Law School students, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards said they are preparing to do battle with President-elect Donald Trump and his administration, DNA Info Chicago reports.

Richards compared Planned Parenthood’s fight for abortion on demand to the battles for civil rights and women’s rights, saying that America is at another “crossroads,” according to the report.

Here’s more from the report:

Richards said she believes that the American public should and will protest any rollbacks on access to birth control by the Trump administration.

“My fear is that the folks who got in now are going to try to erase all of that and you cannot let that happen,” Richards told the audience. “It’s not the civil rights movement, it’s not the suffragist movement, but it’s about as close as we’re going to see in our lifetime.”

She said Trump’s election has sparked a wave of support for Planned Parenthood and requests for services by people who fear the organization will soon be more limited in its scope.

Richards said Planned Parenthood had a 900 percent increase in requests the day after the election for intrauterine devices, a form of long-term birth control.

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately

While Richards focused on birth control during her talk, she knows full well that the primary problem most Americans have with Planned Parenthood is its abortion business. The abortion chain destroys the lives of about 320,000 unborn babies every year, more than any other group in the U.S., and receives about $550 million in taxpayer dollars annually.

Last year, millions of Americans were outraged after they watched undercover videos from the Center for Medical Progress that revealed that Planned Parenthood also may be profiting off the sales of aborted babies’ body parts. A Congressional investigation into the matter is on-going.

Richards reaps in a huge salary, too. According to Planned Parenthood’s IRS Form 990, Richards was paid $957,952 in 2014.

President-elect Trump promised that he would sign a bill to defund Planned Parenthood of taxpayer dollars as long as it continues to do abortions, and Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate said defunding legislation will be a priority next year, according to Politico.

Trump also has surrounded himself with a number of key pro-life leaders, including Vice President-elect Mike Pence and his pick for HHS Secretary Tom Price. These leaders, among others in the up-coming Trump administration, also are worrying the abortion group.

Richards may have been trying to co-opt language that pro-lifers often use by comparing her abortion advocacy to the civil rights and early feminists movements. But Richards and her abortion organization are fighting against rights for the most vulnerable human beings in society today: babies in the womb.

Just as the early feminists fought for the rights of women to vote and the civil rights leaders fought for equal treatment of blacks and other minorities, so, too, pro-lifers fight to restore the right to life for babies in the womb.

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