No one can deny that the abortion giant Planned Parenthood has a great public relations team.
Without one, the multitude of scandals almost certainly would have sunk it years ago. Despite being caught trading aborted baby body parts, engaging in potential Medicaid fraud and agreeing to help sex traffickers, Planned Parenthood has managed to hang onto its half a billion taxpayer dollars and make itself a household name.
A chapter in Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards’ new book provides a glimpse into just how the abortion group’s huge public relations department crafts the narrative to make itself look good.
In the excerpt published at In Style, Richards described how she prepared to testify before a U.S. Congressional committee in 2015 about whether Planned Parenthood illegally sold aborted baby body parts.
Seemingly not giving a single thought to the purpose of the hearing, Richards went into detail about her appearance and her talking points.
Like any good PR person in the midst of a horrible scandal, Richards appears to have avoided saying why she was testifying before Congress in her book. There is no mention of fetal tissue or aborted baby body parts in the excerpt. Probably because even a hint about pulling apart aborted babies’ bodies and sending them in pieces to researchers does not sound good, let alone the allegations of selling them for a profit.
Instead, she wrote about memorizing information about birth control, the abortion chain’s helpline and individual patients’ stories.
Richards explained how her PR team put a lot of thought into how she would look, both her dress and her position at the hearing. It seems they wanted to craft a way to make Richards appear to be harassed and harangued by overbearing “anti-choice” male politicians.
According to the excerpt:
A couple of days before the hearing, we did a run-through so our team could explain how the room would be set up and demonstrate how things would work. There was a row of chairs, raised on a platform, like a judge’s bench, and then a place for me in front of the room.
“Who sits with me at the table during the hearing, so I can ask questions or get help?” I asked.
Lee Blalack, one of our lawyers whom I grew to admire greatly, said, “I think it’s better if you are up there by yourself. You don’t need anyone.”
I had a brief moment of panic. “Wait a minute,” I said. “I’ve seen these hearings on TV. Everyone always has a lawyer!” I was madly racking my brain, recalling every TV courtroom drama I’d ever seen, from Perry Mason to Matlock. People on trial were always represented by lawyers sitting at their side.
“You can do it. You’ll be ready,” Lee replied. Though I wanted to strangle him at the time, his confidence in me went a long way.
Though Richards plays innocent, putting her up there by herself really was a slick move. They knew it would make her look both like a victim and a strong advocate in the face of adversity – depending on which image fit their purposes – and it would make pro-life politicians look like overbearing oppressors.
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They micromanaged Richards’ clothing as well.
“A kind of dress rehearsal, I guess. I picked out a basic blue suit and a pin of my mom’s that had always reminded me of a sheriff’s badge,” she wrote.
Richards said one young woman told her to wear different shoes because the pair she had on had a design decal on the sole. They thought the design label would be “ammunition for the opposition,” so Richards wore a different pair.
It shows the mindset of those who work at Planned Parenthood. Well-crafted images and talking points are what they use to disguise and defend their despicable trade. The abortion chain still gets about $500 million taxpayer dollars each year while aborting 320,000 unborn babies.
However, there is strong evidence that Planned Parenthood is losing Americans’ trust. The baby body parts scandal did damage the abortion chain’s reputation, and the U.S. Department of Justice currently is investigating allegations that Planned Parenthood illegally profited from the sales of aborted baby body parts. What’s more, in the past five years, its patient numbers have been dropping rapidly, according to its own annual reports.
Only so much ugliness can be hidden by the makeup of a public relations department. Planned Parenthood eventually will fail because it can never fully hide the hideousness of killing innocent human babies.
