Outgoing Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards celebrated the opening of a new abortion facility Wednesday in South Carolina with a vow to continue “pushing forward” to expand abortions across America.
The Post and Courier reports the ribbon cutting for the new Charleston-area Planned Parenthood is the last Richards will participate in as CEO.
Richards announced plans to step down in January, barely a month after the U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating whether the abortion chain illegally sold aborted baby body parts.
Lately, Richards has been on a book tour promoting her memoir, “Make Trouble.” On Wednesday, she took a break from promoting her book to brag about how Planned Parenthood is expanding its abortion business in the south.
“We’re sending a message to politicians all across this state that we are unstoppable,” Richards said. “This health center is proof that we’re not just fighting back, we’re pushing forward.”
Planned Parenthood’s old facility in Charleston did not abort unborn babies. Staff at the new location said they are “proud to be offering abortions” now, according to the report.
The report continues:
In her last event of its kind after 12 years as president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards told a crowd of her Southern supporters that the organization’s opening of a clinic that offers abortions in Charleston for the first time is “monumental.”
It is important to guarantee access to reproductive health care, Richards said, otherwise it “doesn’t mean anything to have a right on paper.” …
In an interview with The Post and Courier, Richards was confident about where she is leaving the organization. She said while she is worried about actions from state legislatures and the Supreme Court vacancy, support for Planned Parenthood has never been better.
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But Holly Gatling, executive director of South Carolina Citizens for Life, told the newspaper that Planned Parenthood is all about abortions, not health care.
“Under the direction of Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood began closing small, superfluous clinics that did not offer abortion, the income-producing product, and requiring all its affiliates to kill unborn children,” Gatling said. “That is exactly what is happening in Charleston with Planned Parenthood’s Abortion Empire.”
In the past few years, Planned Parenthood has closed dozens of its rural, non-abortion clinics and opened abortion mega-clinics in major cities, including New Orleans and Washington, D.C. Another is planned for San Francisco.
Its Texas and Minnesota affiliates also received huge, multi-million dollar donations in the past year to support its abortion business in those states.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion business in America, aborting approximately 320,000 unborn babies every year. Its most recent annual report showed a record income of $1.46 billion, with about half a billion dollars coming from taxpayers.
