You can watch the whole video through the above link, but I copied down some segments of the interview below, with my commentary following. One thing is for sure: Cecile is very good at answering questions. (Note the sarcasm?)
Interviewer: Ten to twelve new tapes coming. Are you worried about what they're going to show?
C. Richards: ....most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement...entrap doctors...highly doctored videos...Planned Parenthood does not at all profit...these are highly selectively edited...most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement...
I like how people who are pro-life are called anti-abortion. Really? The amount of negativity in that phrase is ridiculous. Because being against killing babies makes us real baddies, right? We're the "militant" ones who want to stop the slaughter of millions of innocents. I didn't realize we were so awful.
I also like the emphasis on how edited the videos were. It's a shame they didn't release the entire first video without edits, right? Oh wait.
Interviewer: You have apologized for Dr. Nucatola's tone. Have you spoken to her and the other staff member Mary Gatter? How have they been reprimanded?FAILS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION #1.How have they been reprimanded? Well, last week I said the tone Nucatola used to say, "Yes, we'll sell, I mean, donate baby organs to you for $30-100." was bad. So was the tone Gatter used when she said, "$75. Well, that was lowball. $100 does seem appropriate." But let me now change the topic and talk about all the good PP does. Like mammograms. We do lots of those.
C. Richards: They've been reprimanded for their tone, absolutely. But what I want to make clear, George, is Planned Parenthood has broken no laws. We have the highest standards. ...One in five women in this country depend on PP for healthcare, more than 2.5 million people every single year.
Interviewer: You say that no PP affiliate has profited. Do you know how many clinics harvest this tissue and how much money they receive?
C. Richards: Very few. It's only a handful of states where fetal tissue donation is happening. But let's put this in the bigger context. This is not about women's health care. These activists don't care about that.
Interviewer: You say it's only a handful...?
C. Richards: Less than five. So this was not actually an effort to discover any problems. ...a three year effort to entrap doctors...now they're using these very highly edited videos...highly sensationalized videos...to smear the name of Planned Parenthood. They have zero credibility.
FAILS TO ANSWER THE QUESTION #2."Very few," and it takes a SECOND prompting to answer the question, which is only a barely less vague "less than five." Even then, that wasn't the question. He asked how many clinics presently perform this action, not how many states allow it to happen. Again, she cannot help to change the topic to avoid answering the question.
Meanwhile, I love the focus on "three year effort." Hey, if three years is what it takes to gather a dozen videos together of you guys saying and doing stupid stuff, I'm happy to see another three years' work, should everyone turn a blind eye to your malicious actions (which, unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised by).
Interviewer: They also show one of the doctors, Mary Gatter, appears to be haggling. Let me show this clip right here. [Gadner then talks about low-balling and wanting a Lamborghini.] If there's no financial benefit to the clinics, why are they haggling over the cost?I didn't know asking someone to name their price was haggling, but okay.
C. Richards: The only people that are haggling in these videos are the undercover folks who are absolutely trying to entrap doctors, they were completely unsuccessful. That's why they're showing these highly edited videos, to be sensationalized...
Interviewer: When you see this, what do you think?
C. Richards: It's completely taken out of context. It, uh, we have, PP serves 2.5 million people every year. Women come to us for breast cancer screenings, cervical cancer screenings, birth control. One in five women in the country have been to PP for health care.... Half of our health centers are in medically under-served communities in America. This entire effort is a complete political smear campaign in order to cut off funding for basic health care for women in America. One thing is important to understand: We do more at PP every single day to prevent unintended pregnancy than any other organization in the country. I stand behind our doctors and clinicians who provide compassionate care every single day.
"It's completely taken out of context." WHAT? I'm sorry, but in what possible context do these conversations turn out to be totally cool? Talking about a range of money, the careful crushing of human bodies to keep organs intact, laughing about expensive cars over lunch... Does anyone know a context in which all of this is okay?
Do you know what Planned Parenthood's many locations in "medically under-served communities in America" reminds me of?
All lovely quotations from Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, don't you think?
- "The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."
- "[We should] apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is tainted, or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring."
- "Give dysgenic groups [people with “bad genes”] in our population their choice of segregation or [compulsory] sterilization."
- "We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."
- "Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race."
Yes, PP does do more than any other organization to prevent unintended pregnancy...if you believe abortion prevents pregnancy instead of terminates it, if you believe the pills they push on women do not have abortifacient effects and if you believe the connection between long use of birth control and later problems with fertility have nothing whatsoever to do with each other.
Interviewer: Charging a fee for this material doesn't--
C. Richards: It's not a fee. It's not a fee. The cost of transmitting this material to research institutes.
Interviewer: But that does improve the finances of the clinic, doesn't it?
C. Richards: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And in fact, it's really important. They have tried repeatedly to entrap doctors.
Interviewer: StemExpress, which is one of the companies you work with, they have a brochure where it talks about the financial profits, the financial benefits--
C. Richards: StemExpress is a for-profit company. That's not PP.
Interviewer: But it talks about the financial benefits to the clinics.
C. Richards: There are no financial benefits to the clinics. Absolutely. Absolutely. We should not base any health care decisions in this country on highly sensationalized folks who are nothing but militant anti-abortion extremists.
Intersting that now she says, "Absolutely. Absolutely." instead of "Absolutely not. Absolutely not." Or is that me reading too much into what she says?
Highly sensationalized militant yada yada...
Interviewer: The second issue they raise is the tapes appear to describe times when the clinics adjust the abortion procedure to better harvest the fetal--So they're lying, then. They've said these words, but they were out of context. The entire unedited video was just out of context. Okay.
C. Richards: That is not done. And I've talked to doctors all across the country.
Interviewer: But it doesn't appear that that is what's being described in the tapes.C. Richards: Well, it's because these tapes have been edited and they've tried to entrap doctors.
Interviewer: So when these doctors, and this gets graphic, talk about "less crunchy" ways to perform these abortions so that the organs can be preserved, what's happening there? Are they just lying?
C. Richards: No, that's absolut--. All of this is taken out of context. What happens in this country at PP and other hospitals is that women in very few places are allowed to donate fetal tissue for life-saving medical reasons.
Interviewer: As long as the procedure is never altered, and you're stating that unequivocally?
C. Richards: That's right.
So, the procedure is not altered in order to preserve organs, even though Dr. Nucatola SAID EXACTLY THAT in the video. Anyone remember the line about "We can crush lower" to avoid ruining organs? I mean, honestly? We're saying stuff like CRUSH BABIES' BODIES and not absolutely freaking out about that? Excuse me, but what the hell??
Interviewer: Any other reforms PP is going to take in the wake of this? [You know, aside from apologizing for tone.]
C. Richards: Well, obviously, we, you know, the most disgusting part of this to me is these folks lied, lied to gain access to clinics, um, you know, what doctors and clinicians face to actually provide health care to women in this country is already pretty incredible... The safety and the health of our patients, and the women that we provide health care to, is essential. And we take that first and foremost, that's the most important thing. These activists, these militant anti-abortion activists, on the other hand, do nothing to promote the health and safety of women. And if they had their way, women could no longer come to PP for birth control, for breast cancer screenings, for cervical cancer screenings, or any other health care.
FAILURE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION #3.Richards does have a point here. Lying is wrong, and even though the group wanted to expose something absolutely crazy that we just let happen, doing something wrong, even for a "good reason" is still wrong. But this is all Richards can bring up in her third round of NOT ANSWERING THE QUESTION? In addition to repeating herself, because of course people are questioning you, the best way to convince them of your position is to state something repeatedly instead of answering their questions. I suppose even she can not confess to how absolutely atrocious her beloved non-profit organization is. Perhaps saying the words out loud would finally break the delusion.
And again: highly edited videos by militant anti-abortion activists who hate PP who does so much good for 2.5 million people. Because what these people really wanted to expose was your foul care of women when you screen them for breast cancer, Planned Parenthood's top priority since its founding. They hate women. Totally. They could not have been trying to send any other message like, I don't know, killing babies is bad enough, DON'T SELL THEIR BODIES, TOO.
But Cecile pulls a total Umbridge throughout this whole video. "You have been told that a certain non-profit organization that helps one in five women, that's 2.5 million people, a year make good health care decisions is a baby body part selling mess of malicious and evil-minded people. This. Is. A. Lie."
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