{"id":10439,"date":"2015-09-30T08:23:04","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T15:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/planned-parenthood-chief-rebuts-videos\/"},"modified":"2015-09-30T08:23:04","modified_gmt":"2015-09-30T15:23:04","slug":"planned-parenthood-chief-rebuts-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/planned-parenthood-chief-rebuts-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood chief rebuts videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 The head of Planned Parenthood defended the women\u2019s health organization Tuesday before a Republican-run Congress bent on slashing its federal funding, telling lawmakers that accusations against her group fed by stealthily recorded videos are \u201coffensive and categorically untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Planned Parenthood\u2019s first appearance before Congress since those videos emerged this summer, Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee argued that the group needs no taxpayer financing. They cited Planned Parenthood tax documents showing it spends millions on political activities, travel and exorbitant salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s money that\u2019s not going to women\u2019s health care,\u201d said committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. \u201cIt\u2019s a political organization, and that\u2019s something that needs to be ferreted out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood\u2019s president, told the lawmakers that her group has fallen victim to a \u201csmear campaign\u201d based on videos in which its officials coolly describe how they sometimes harvest tissue from aborted fetuses for scientific research.<\/p>\n

Conservatives and many Republicans say the videos, made by abortion foes posing as private purchasers of fetal organs, show Planned Parenthood has broken federal laws including a ban on for-profit fetal tissue sales. The organization says it\u2019s acted legally and says the videos were deceitfully edited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outrageous accusations leveled against Planned Parenthood, based on heavily doctored videos, are offensive and categorically untrue,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n

Richards also said the videos have inspired an increase in threats against Planned Parenthood clinics.<\/p>\n

The recordings have pumped Planned Parenthood and the abortions many of its nearly 700 clinics provide into an electric political issue, with many GOP presidential candidates frequently lambasting the group. Conservatives\u2019 demands that Congress cut its federal payments \u2014 for which Republicans lack the votes to succeed \u2014 contributed to the GOP unrest that prompted House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to announce his resignation last week.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood gets around a third of its $1.3 billion yearly budget from federal payments, mostly reimbursements for treating low-income Medicaid patients. By law, nearly no federal funds can be used for abortion. The group provides contraception, sexual disease testing and cancer screenings as well as abortions to 2.7 million patients annually in clinics from coast to coast.<\/p>\n

Congress is on track to approve legislation this week preventing an imminent federal shutdown and continuing federal payments to Planned Parenthood. But House committees began working Tuesday on separate legislation that would cut most of the organization\u2019s federal money and would be immune to Senate filibuster by Democrats. That means that measure has a strong chance of reaching President Barack Obama\u2019s desk, where it would face certain veto.<\/p>\n

Richards said just 1 percent of its clinics retrieve fetal tissue when abortion patients request it. She said she is \u201cproud\u201d of the work, which is used to research cures and treatments for diseases, but called it a \u201cminuscule\u201d part of the services Planned Parenthood provides.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s hearing occurred in a crowded but orderly hearing room dotted by Planned Parenthood supporters in pink T-shirts. Also seated were abortion opponents who initially wore masking tape over their mouths bearing the word \u201cLife,\u201d which they removed when asked by police.<\/p>\n

The audience witnessed bitter partisan exchanges between lawmakers that have typified their reactions to the videos.<\/p>\n

After noting that nearly all of Planned Parenthood\u2019s political activity benefits Democrats, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said, \u201cNo wonder they\u2019re defending this repulsive game.\u201d He also called the organization\u2019s fetal tissue work \u201cbarbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n

And after Chaffetz cited tax documents he said showed that Richards \u2014 seated before him \u2014 was earning $590,000 yearly, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., accused him of \u201cbeating up on a woman, to our witness today, for making a good salary.\u201d<\/p>\n

That remark came as both parties gear up for a campaign year in which both parties will vie for female voters.<\/p>\n

Republicans repeatedly asked Richards how much money Planned Parenthood makes from the more than 300,000 abortions it performs annually. She said she did not have a figure but said she\u2019s submitted forms from each of the group\u2019s 59 local affiliates detailing their income.<\/p>\n

The hearing came the same day the House used a near party-line vote to let states stop reimbursing abortion providers with Medicaid, which is jointly funded with federal and state money. The GOP measure, which would make it harder for low-income people to find doctors who provide abortion, has little chance in the Senate.<\/p>\n

It also came a day after state investigators in Missouri said they\u2019d uncovered \u201cno evidence whatsoever\u201d that the state\u2019s only surgical abortion facility sells fetal remains. At least five other states \u2014 Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Dakota \u2014 also have cleared Planned Parenthood of breaking laws.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood has defended itself with newspaper ads, petition campaigns and lawsuits against state efforts to curb its funding. On Tuesday, volunteers and supporters scheduled events in nearly 90 cities and planned to give lawmakers more than 2 million signatures on \u201cI Stand With Planned Parenthood\u201d petitions.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer David Crary contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The head of Planned Parenthood defended the women\u2019s health<\/a> organization Tuesday before a Republican-run Congress bent on slashing its federal funding, telling lawmakers that accusations against her group fed by stealthily recorded videos are \u201coffensive and categorically untrue.\u201d In Planned Parenthood\u2019s first appearance before Congress since those videos emerged this summer, Republicans on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":10440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-10439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10439"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=10439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}