Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards is expected to testify before Congress next week, on September 29. This announcement comes on the heels of multiple Congressional investigations into Planned Parenthood, as well as a bill being passed by the House of Representatives to defund Planned Parenthood.
Will Congress go easy on Cecile Richards, or will they stand strong and demand the truth from her? The list of answers we need from Richards – and Planned Parenthood – is extensive, but here are some questions that Congress simply must ask her.
1) Why do Planned Parenthood executives admit on tape to selling the body parts of aborted babies for profit?
Let’s be honest here: the odds of Cecile Richards answering this question honestly are slim to none. But given what the Center for Medical Progress has uncovered in their undercover investigative videos, the question still needs to be asked – if for no other reason than to catch Richards in a lie before Congress, and to have that lie documented.
If she says that Planned Parenthood does not peddle fetal body parts for profit, we’ll know she’s lying, as the latest video showed Planned Parenthood executives talking openly about how these babies’ body parts can bring in, in their own words, “a fair amount of income.”
Richards has claimed that Planned Parenthood facilities comply with federal law when harvesting the body parts of aborted children, but needless to say, there are a lot of holes in that argument. She has already inadvertently admitted that Planned Parenthood manipulates the rules on selling fetal organs to make a profit. Will Richards be willing to repeat her lies and half-baked truths under oath, before Congress?
2) What services does Planned Parenthood provide that women cannot receive anywhere else?
Richards is fighting the defunding of Planned Parenthood tooth and nail, claiming that the abortion giant is a necessity for American women, and that it provides vital health care for millions of women.
But that simply isn’t true.
Over the years, under Cecile Richards’ leadership, Planned Parenthood has become focused on nothing but abortion. But they don’t want people to know this, so they lie about the services they provide. They continue to repeat the lie that they provide mammograms to women, although this is not true. Breast exams, breast health care, cancer screenings, prenatal care, adoption referrals – all slashed under Richards.
Yet the number of abortions Planned Parenthood performs has increased, despite the fact that they are seeing fewer clients.
This graph represents Planned Parenthood’s services, and is explained here.
While Planned Parenthood is making its focus abortion more than ever, and leaving actual health care behind, they are vastly outnumbered by comprehensive health clinics that do provide the health care that Planned Parenthood won’t. The only service that women can get at Planned Parenthood that they can’t receive anywhere else is abortion.
Will Cecile Richards be willing to own up to that, or will she parrot more lies?
3) Why has Planned Parenthood been repeatedly caught breaking the law?
There’s no denying that Planned Parenthood believes itself to be above the law. Yet Planned Parenthood has been caught breaking laws over and over again, from covering up the sexual abuse of children to aiding and abetting child sex trafficking, to name just a couple.
Sadly, these instances aren’t restricted to undercover sting operations; Planned Parenthood has been caught breaking these laws in real life time and time again – covering up child rape in Philadelphia, performing an abortion on a kidnapped teenager and then handing her back to her captor with no questions asked, covering up the rape of an 11-year-old girl, taking no action when a teenage girl told them she was being sexually abused by her father. The list is seemingly endless, and it is heartbreaking.
Planned Parenthood’s crimes are not limited to looking the other way as children are made victims of horrific sex crimes. They have also been caught fraudulently billing Medicaid and violating a Wisconsin law not just once, but twice.
The investigations released by the Center for Medical Progress have also revealed more lawless behavior, in addition to the sales of fetal body parts for profit. That in and of itself is against the law, but there is sadly more than just that. Several other federal laws have been broken, including committing illegal partial-birth abortions and illegally manipulating abortion procedures – as well as killing babies born alive after attempted abortions.
Looking at the body of evidence against Planned Parenthood, it’s clear that lawless behavior isn’t relegated to just a few bad apples here and there; it’s endemic to the entire operation.
4) Given all of this information, why should Planned Parenthood continue to receive taxpayer dollars?
Planned Parenthood routinely breaks federal laws. They have been caught selling the body parts of aborted babies, covering up sexual abuse of children, aiding and abetting child sex trafficking, committing fraud against Medicaid, performing illegal partial-birth abortions, lying to women about the risks of abortion and about fetal development, turning ultrasound screens away from women to purposely deceive them, being willing to accept racist donations to abort Black babies, killing babies born alive, and illegally manipulating abortion procedures.
They also are largely in the business of abortion only, and do not provide the medical care that is provided at actual health clinics that are truly designed to serve low-income women and their families.
So why does Planned Parenthood deserve even a dime of taxpayer money?
