Throughout the current Planned Parenthood debacle, it’s been clear that the White House has given nothing more than ineffectual responses, making constant – and false – excuses for the abortion giant.
Today’s response from the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, may be the worst yet.
The Hill reports:
Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Tuesday defended federal funding for Planned Parenthood as a third undercover video was released on the organization’s use of fetal tissue.
“What I think is important is that our HHS funding is focused on issues of preventative care for women, things like mammograms,” Burwell told the House Education and Workforce Committee.
But seriously? Mammograms? Planned Parenthood and mammograms is a false connection that even Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards stopped spouting – once Live Action exposed the falsehood. Perhaps the Obama administration should have “snoped” it before making the claim.
A series of undercover phone calls reveals that contrary to the claims of Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards and other supporters of the nation’s largest abortion chain, the organization does not provide mammograms for women.
In the tapes, a Live Action actor calls 30 Planned Parenthood clinics in 27 different states, inquiring about mammograms at Planned Parenthood. Every Planned Parenthood, without exception, tells her she will have to go elsewhere for a mammogram, and many clinics admit that no Planned Parenthood clinics provide this breast cancer screening procedure. “We don’t provide those services whatsoever,” admits a staffer at Planned Parenthood of Arizona. Planned Parenthood’s Comprehensive Health Center clinic in Overland Park, KS explains to the caller, “We actually don’t have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”
The Hill reports: “She said she has not seen the Planned Parenthood videos that have stoked controversy, but has read about them.” Perhaps – just like every other Obama admin official – Secretary Burwell ought to take a few minutes out of her day and actually watch the videos, including the one above about mammograms.
That may clear things up a bit.
First, the current Planned Parenthood scandal has absolutely nothing to do with mammograms, especially considering Planned Parenthood does not provide them. And secondly, even if Planned Parenthood were providing mammograms, this does not release the abortion giant from its ethical and legal responsibility to follow federal law and HHS regulations in every area of its work.
Secretary Burwell has declined to investigate Planned Parenthood, even though taxpayer dollars flow directly from the HHS to Planned Parenthood every year. Sadly, the Obama admin couldn’t be more blind – to the outrage of the American people or to the plain and simple facts.
Lila Rose, president of Live Action, has made this statement:
“It is an alarming dereliction of duty that the Secretary of Health and Human Services refuses to view investigative reports that clearly demonstrate that Planned Parenthood, who receives close to half a million taxpayer dollars a year from the federal government, is engaged in the selling and trafficking of aborted baby body parts for profit. What is she earning a government paycheck to do if not to consider the human atrocities taking place on her and President Obama’s watch? Ms. Burwell is so caught up in her radical, pro-abortion partisanship that she will not even review these inhuman and horrific practices taking place at Planned Parenthood clinics that she oversees through taxpayer subsidies. Ms. Burwell should be investigating Planned Parenthood, not covering for them.”
