On his evening program, Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson has been addressing legislation which would repeal and replace ObamaCare, which includes defunding abortion giant Planned Parenthood for one year. Carlson has had Planned Parenthood higher ups on his program in order to explain their position on the legislation but more so than what they say, it’s what they don’t say which has been the most eye-opening about their refusal to cease performing abortions in order to retain federal funding, as offered by President Donald Trump. But that isn’t the only question the organization struggles to answer.
Carlson spoke with former Planned Parenthood Action Fund board member and DNC candidate Jehmu Greene during the March 10 episode. Greene couldn’t – or wouldn’t – answer several of Carlson’s questions, namely why the organization won’t stop performing abortions. Carlson followed up on the issue on March 13, when he spoke to Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood Dawn Laguens.
Like Greene, Laguens was unable to fully answer why it is that Planned Parenthood won’t forgo abortions, and instead emphasized their other services. While she admitted that Planned Parenthood can only refer for mammograms, she left out that they only perform 1.8 percent of the breast exams in the United States. As Michelle Ye Hee Lee, fact-checker for the Washington Post has pointed out more than once, “less than 3 percent of Planned Parenthood breast exams result in a referral for a mammogram and other specialized services.”
Laguens also avoided answering fundamental questions regarding the humanity of the preborn and what it is that Planned Parenthood is actually aborting. Carlson told Laguens that he was asking her “a human question” and hoped for a “human answer” regarding her thoughts on what Planned Parenthood does when they abort a fetus.
“So Planned Parenthood does provide an awful lot of abortions every year. I think over 300,000,” said Carlson. “[…] And the majority of them are after five and a half weeks. That’s the point at which the fetal heartbeat can be detected. I’m just wondering, as someone who works there, what do you think of that? What is being aborted? If you can hear the heartbeat, what is that thing that’s being aborted? How do you feel about that?”
Rather than give her personal thoughts, as Carlson requested, Laguens spouts a party line:
Well, abortion is a right in this country, women have their own views on whether or not they want to be pregnant. That is not a viable fetus at five and a half weeks, anyone knows that. And what you would do is make your own choice. And that’s all Planned Parenthood has ever said, that every woman should make her own choice.
Carlson again tells Laguens that he wants to know what she thinks about what a fetus is and what an abortion does. To which she responds:
I think that’s up to each individual to decide what they believe.
Carlson persistently spent a considerable part of the segment asking Laguens what it is that Planned Parenthood is aborting, but Laguens never gave an answer. He tried throughout the segment to get Laguens to go beyond her talking points, calling them “childish” and refusing to let her “filibuster.” It was to no avail, however.
Perhaps Laguens could have respect for pro-life women who do not wish to fund the nation’s abortion giant, especially when money is fungible. Perhaps her organization could support all choices involved in pregnancy by providing prenatal care and adoptions, rather than focusing on abortion. Her organization would also not be complicit in biased counseling or oppose laws to protect women from coerced abortions.
Carlson asked her several times if she had thought about her work, which she at best answered with a dressed-up ‘no.’ What comes to mind is that perhaps Laguens doesn’t think about what it is that she and her organization does, which is how she’s able to go on holding such a high position in the organization which performs the most abortions in the country.
In closing, Carlson accurately referred to the segment as “a uniquely shallow conversation.”
If Planned Parenthood is so confident in their services and popularity, why is it that their top employees can’t answer questions about it? Shouldn’t they be willing and ready to defend themselves? Perhaps it’s that Planned Parenthood isn’t so confident after all, and that they themselves know the truth about their services, the humanity of the preborn, and how they see women as little more than dollar signs.
