Planned Parenthood Upset Democrats Didn’t Spend More Time Celebrating Abortion

National   |   Mary Margaret Olohan   |   Aug 1, 2019   |   3:41PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood Action slammed the Democratic debates Wednesday night for “barely” addressing abortion.

The nation’s largest abortion provider’s action arm said the debates hardly broached abortion, devoting a “mere 5 minutes” to the topic. Planned Parenthood Action’s tweets echo its criticisms following Tuesday night’s debates after which it similarly pointed out that abortion had not been addressed.

“As the nation faces a crisis in access to abortion and other reproductive health care, voters deserve more than a mere 5 minutes touching on this critical issue. Yet, it was barely addressed during the #DemDebate,” Planned Parenthood’s action arm tweeted.

25 million women in America are one Supreme Court case away from losing the right to access abortion—even though 77 percent of Americans support Roe v. Wade. Millions also risk losing access to birth control & other repro care via attacks on Title X,” it added in a following tweet. 

Planned Parenthood Action’s tweets reference former Vice President Joe Biden’s and Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris’s discussion of the Hyde Amendment at Wednesday night’s presidential debates.

Keep up with the latest pro-life news and information on Twitter.

Harris criticized Biden for his flip on the Hyde Amendment. She attacked the former vice president for waiting years to remove his support of the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of Medicaid for abortions except in cases of rape, incest or if the mother’s life is in danger.

“You made a decision for years to withhold resources to poor women to have access to reproductive health care, including women who were the victims of rape and incest,” Harris told Biden. “Do you now say that you have evolved and you regret that?”

Harris pointed out that Biden only changed his stance on Hyde after he began running for president.

“Why did it take you so long to change your position on the Hyde Amendment?” Harris asked Biden. “Why did it take so long until you were running for president to change your position on the Hyde Amendment?”

Both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s Democratic debates hardly touched on abortion, though contention around abortion access has heightened in the past year as states continue to pass restrictive abortion legislation.

Alabama passed a near-total ban on abortion while 10 other states have begun to introduce restrictive abortion legislation, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Meanwhile, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana and Kentucky have passed laws banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, with limited exceptions.

CNN, which hosted the second round of Democratic primary debates, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.