Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest said that when Americans see Cecile Richards sitting before a Congressional Committee, “It is the culmination of years of work and careful analysis of a horrific business model that ends the lives of 1 in 3 infants who die in abortion.”
AUL called for hearings in 2011 when introducing “The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood,” which detailed numerous troubling issues with the mega-abortion provider, including mishandling federal funds and failure to report sexual predators who use abortion to destroy the human evidence of their crimes. Those issues are magnified today in images from the Center for Medical Progress videos showing Planned Parenthood top officials discussing the profits they make from selling dismembered infant bodies and body parts for experimentation.
“It’s time to defund an abortion industry, that fights health and safety standards for women, so that they can keep profits high and standards low,” said Yoest. “Cecile Richards must answer for her inhumane business model and detail what she is doing with millions in taxpayer dollars. Monetizing the end of an infant’s unborn life is her gruesome expertise.”
Richards takes the stand before Congress about a week after Yoest testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee that examined ending taxpayer funding for abortion providers who violate the law. In an exchange with Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA), Yoest challenged the panel to bring Cecile Richards before Congress to address the six troubling legal issues raised in the CMP videos.
“The burden of proof is on Planned Parenthood, to show that they are not violating the law while profiting from trafficking in infant body parts,” Yoest said.
Richards is scheduled to testify later today before the House Oversight Committee about taxpayer support going to Planned Parenthood, noted by the committee to be “approximately $1.3 billion in total revenue, of which $528.4 million (41 %) is attributed to ‘government health services grants and reimbursements.'”
As a scandal-ridden Planned Parenthood uses political maneuvering to force taxpayers to handover scarce Medicaid funding to the leading abortionist federation, Americans United for Life Action called on the U.S. House to support H.R. 3435, the Women’s Public Health and Safety Act, sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI). The bill would explicitly permit a state to exclude abortion providers and facilities where abortions are performed from its Medicaid program.
“It’s scandalous that a program set up to fund healthcare for the poor has been hijacked by a greedy abortion industry, working overtime to seize resources from real healthcare providers such as the now expanded Community Health Centers,” said Yoest. “As we’ve seen with our own eyes in the Center for Medical Progress videos, Planned Parenthood profits from the death and dismemberment of unborn infants. It’s time to redirect those funds to lifesaving care.”
In a letter to representatives, Yoest noted that the vote would be scored by the legal arm of the pro-life movement and observed that this change in Medicaid funding is already under way. “At least two states, Indiana and Arizona, have enacted laws restricting abortion providers from participating in their Medicaid programs,” she wrote.
AULA also supports House efforts this week to set up a select Committee on Planned Parenthood under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, similar to the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
“It’s time to open the books of the abortion industry, to determine what they have been doing with more than 1 million tax dollars every day, and whether the inhumanity of trafficking in human remains is illegally continuing,” said Yoest.
