Dawn Laguens, the group’s executive vice president, accused Republicans on the House Government Oversight Committee of “haranguing” Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards during her testimony Tuesday.
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“The outrageous accusations leveled against Planned Parenthood, based on heavily doctored videos, are offensive and categorically untrue”, said Richards during her testimony.
Richards on Tuesday faced scrutiny and a rapid-fire succession of pointed and blunt questions about everything from her salary to whether she was covering up criminal activity at her organization.
The controversy over the videos has led a few of the most conservative Republicans in the U.S. Congress to oppose any stopgap funding bill that keeps federal money flowing to Planned Parenthood.
Richards also said the videos have inspired an increase in threats against Planned Parenthood clinics.
“We’re standing up against tyranny unlike we’ve not seen in a long time – ill-informed, ill-advised and mean-spirited”, said Watson Coleman, a former longtime state assemblywoman representing Mercer and Hunterdon counties.
Planned Parenthood gets about $500 million annually in federal funds, largely in Medicaid reimbursements.
Congress is on track to approve legislation this week preventing an imminent federal shutdown and continuing federal payments to Planned Parenthood.
Maine Sen. Angus King released a statement in the wake of the vote criticizing legislators who were in favor of shutting down the government in an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood. He asks for funding, and we say yes to a few and no to others. “I think if it it wasn’t Planned Parenthood, Republicans would find a different way to do that and there would be a different symbol – they have decided to make it Planned Parenthood”.
For the past month, House and Senate Republicans have squared off with Democrats over including funding for Planned Parenthood in the bill. Those are things Planned Parenthood provides at a reduced cost for lower-income women.
Democrats have used a Senate filibuster – a virtually endless procedural delay – to block GOP legislation halting Planned Parenthood’s federal payments.
The recordings have created an electric political atmosphere around Planned Parenthood and the abortions that many of its almost 700 clinics provide.
Now, the Senate’s funding bill comes before the House, where Roby seeks to give her peers one more opportunity to staunch the flow of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to the embattled abortion provider.
During his USA visit, the pope visited with the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns who have challenged the Obama administration’s health care insurance mandate. We must use our powers to investigate this rogue organization and shine a light on its horrifying abuses, thereby building support in Congress and among the public for the pro-life cause.
We’ll update this post once the House takes action.
Analysts say Boehner’s bombshell announcement makes a shutdown less likely – for now.
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“The Republicans are all about defunding [healthcare] and education”, another Pink Out Day supporter, Taylor Finch chimed in. Planned Parenthood sought the emergency order a day after suing Herbert.
