PPFA President Cecile Richards
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) was finally invited to testify at one of the House Republican hearings "investigating" it over the bogus videos released over the summer purporting to show the organization participating in illegal fetal tissue sales. PPFA President Cecile Richards spent a grueling five hours battling a hostile and misogynistic line of Republican questioning that had even
anti-choice activists embarrassed, calling it "inexcusable," a "farce," and a "freak show."
There were relentless attacks on Richards herself, demands that she justify her salary and whether she traveled first class and what her compensation was based on. The questioning led Democratic Rep. Carol Maloney (D-NI) to exclaim, "In my entire time I've been in Congress, I've never seen a witness beaten up and questioned about their salary, [especially a woman] […] I find it totally inappropriate and discriminatory." Republicans were trying to make the point that PPFA didn't need any federal funding, that it could do just fine with fundraising, as usual completely ignoring the fact that the affiliate clinics provide vital healthcare service to millions of men and women, but particularly low-income women, who don't have access to other providers.
In the vein of all claims about Planned Parenthood made by Republicans, Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) tried to pass of "research" showing a decline in breast cancer screenings and a spike in abortions in recent years from anti-abortion group Americans United for Life as having come from PPFA's corporate reports. There was incessant badgering of Richards over her initial apology for the tone used by a PPFA official in one of the first videos, with Rep. Jimmy Duncan (R-TN) eventually making this obnoxious comparison: "It seems to me that the apology you offered was like what some criminals do. They're not really sorry for what they have done. They are sorry they got caught and it seems to me that your apology is more because you got caught on these videos."
Yes, Duncan essentially called Richards a criminal, despite the fact that the videos have been shown to be falsified and that numerous investigations by the states have shown that PPFA is doing nothing illegal. Anywhere. For her part, Richards maintained an admirable equanimity, though it was clear that was a challenge. She nailed the whole exercise, however.
"The latest smear campaign is based on efforts by our opponents to entrap our doctors and clinicians into breaking the law—and once again our opponents failed," Ms. Richards said.
House Republicans have promised there won't be any end any time soon to the smear campaign. They're launching a
select committee to supposedly investigate the information in the videos. Just like Benghazi. Another committee spending oodles of taxpayer dollars investigating nothing, but designed to attack the frontrunner in the presidential race, who just happens to be a woman, and an organization devoted to providing healthcare to women.
So much for the GOP having learned the lessons of 2012. Their War on Women couldn't be waged with any more vigor.