How to Make Planned Parenthood Squirm

 

By John McCormack
WeeklyStandard.com

At the beginning of a five-hour committee hearing on Tuesday with Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards as the sole witness, Chairman Jason Chaffetz made a surprising announcement. The Utah congressman and oversight committee chairman said he wouldn't focus on the undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood's practice of harvesting and selling the organs and tissue of aborted babies to biotech companies.

"I've allowed great latitude to members, they can ask what they want to ask, but the focus of what we're doing today is how this organization is funded and how they spend their money," Chaffetz said. His rationale for focusing on Planned Parenthood's finances was that all of the undercover videos have not yet been released because a California judge has imposed a temporary restraining order. "The first step is seeing all the videos. All the videos," Chaffetz said.

So Chaffetz drew attention to Cecile Richards' exorbitant compensation (nearly $600,000) as president of a billion-dollar nonprofit and pointed out that Planned Parenthood has transferred millions of dollars from its 501(c)3 "charitable" arm to its 501(c)4 lobbying and political operation. Mark Meadows of North Carolina debunked the Planned Parenthood talking point that “only three percent” of its services are abortions (more than one in ten of its clients procures an abortion, and roughly one-third of revenue comes from abortions). The best moment for Republicans probably came when Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming got Richards to admit Planned Parenthood does not provide mammograms just moments after a Democratic congresswoman claimed they did: 

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY: When you read this, there are certain things that jump out. All of the signatories are men, none of whom will get pregnant, or need a cervical screening for cancer, or mammograms, or a Pap smear, or other life-saving services provided by Planned Parenthood.

REP. CYNTHIA LUMMIS: Thank you, Ms. Richards, for being with us today. My first question is, how many Planned Parenthood clinics have mammogram machines?

CECILE RICHARDS: There aren’t any Planned Parenthood clinics—I believe, to the best of my knowledge, not any have mammogram machines at their facility.

"We've never stated that we did" provide mammograms, Richards said later, contradicting a claim Richards herself had made in 2011.

So the hearing wasn't a complete failure for Republicans, but it did seem like a badly missed opportunity to expose Planned Parenthood's extremism or hold Richards accountable for what has been revealed by the Center for Medical Progress's undercover investigation.

Congressman Ron DeSantis of Florida was one of the few Republicans to ask Richards directly about the undercover videotapes. In doing so, he showed just how much of a mistake it had been to focus on line items in Planned Parenthood's publicly available tax returns.

Richards: That woman does not work for Planned Parenthood, so I cannot speak to anything she said. I'm not responsible for her.

DeSantis: Do you deny that her description of what happened is something that does occur in planned parenthood clinics?

Richards: Abso--I have never. There is nothing she has ever described that I could attest to has ever happened.

DeSantis: So you can categorically testify to that then?

Richards: Categorically testify to what? I want to be very careful.

DeSantis: That what she describes--

Richards: Well, I don't remember that particular video of Holly O'Donnell, but I will tell you she has never worked at Planned Parenthood. 

I don't remember that particular video?

If Republicans were prepared, they would have had the videos ready to play at the moment Richards said the words "I don't remember that particular video." But the videos didn't begin to play, and DeSantis let Richards off the hook on this particular line of questioning as he tried to get in a couple more good questions before his five minutes of time for questioning ran out.

DeSantis's questioning pointed to a number of obvious follow-up questions, such as: 

1. If Richards thinks a baby should get "appropriate medical care" if born alive during an abortion, why does Planned Parenthood oppose the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, and why has President Obama threatened to veto it?

2. What would constitute "appropriate medical care" for a baby born alive at 18 weeks into pregnancy? 

3. How would Planned Parenthood go about harvesting brain tissue from such a baby, and how would that differ from what Holly O'Donnell described?

4. Why does Planned Parenthood oppose any legal limits on abortion when its own affiliates refuse to perform abortions past a certain gestational point? 

5. What's the difference between aborting a healthy baby of a healthy mother at 23 weeks into pregnancy and killing that same baby born alive at 23 weeks?

There are many more questions that come to mind, but no one on the committee really pressed her on these issues. This was a failure both of establishment Republicans and staunch conservatives (ten members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus questioned Richards on Tuesday). Even Trey Gowdy, widely respected for his handling of the Benghazi hearings, used his time to ask Richards if she could understand why people might disagree with her on abortion.

House Republicans are planning on forming a select committee on Planned Parenthood. Tuesday's hearing should provide members of that committee a good lesson in what not to do.