Planned Parenthood Prez: “We Worked with Obama for Three Years”

by Steven Ertelt Washington, DC
7/16/12

LifeNews.com:

The Planned Parenthood abortion business has enjoyed a cozy relationship with President Barack Obama and his administration. Planned Parenthood has received millions in taxpayer funds, thanks to Obama, and its president has been a frequent visitor to the White House.

Now, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards is admitting just how close the relationship has been.

“I’ve been working with this administration for the last three years on getting women better health care access in a whole host of ways,” Richards says in a new interview with National Journal. Interestingly, the web site cuts off the rest of what Richards says before quoting her as saying Obamacare and its abortion funding components “is the single most important opportunity to expand women’s health care access in this country that we will ever see.”

While Planned Parenthood is in bed with the Obama administration and Democrats, Richards, responding to recent criticism from abortion advocates that the abortion giant has become too partisan, says it still has Republican support, too.

NJ In a recent op-ed in The New York Times, Campbell Brown accused Planned Parenthood of self-destructive behavior, including “blind partisanship” and burning instead of building bridges to Republicans.

Richards Many Republicans support Planned Parenthood and they have for decades. Frankly our work is consistent with the conservative Republican values of individual responsibility and government staying out of people’s personal lives. In Arizona, Peggy Goldwater [Barry Goldwater’s wife] was one of our founders. The entire presidential primary was a race to the bottom on women’s health care. It’s very challenging when you have a Republican Party platform that is demanding Republican opposition to [Roe v. Wade], demanding opposition to Planned Parenthood, opposition to birth control coverage. Frankly, I think that is out of step with where the American people are.

NJ Brown specifically mentioned Maine Sen. Susan Collins. Are you still working with her?

Richards We have worked with Susan Collins for years and will continue to work with her.… [The environment] is very difficult. There are Republicans who we do support who are frankly terrified of the tea party and of being primaried. Just observing some of the races that we’ve seen this year, Sen. [Richard] Lugar in Indiana is a good example — a moderate Republican who crossed party lines on a variety of issues. It’s a very cautionary tale for moderate Republicans in the party. We have Republican board members, we have Republican CEOs, we have Republican supporters all across the country. You don’t have a 68 percent approval rating without them…. The trouble is, the leadership of the party has become much more difficult for moderate Republicans and more-independent-minded Republicans. I just fundamentally disagree with her premise. She was choosing the facts to meet her own particular point of view. This has never been a partisan organization.… I live for the day when politics is no longer used to keep women from getting health care in America. But there’s work to do. We certainly never have faced the kind of partisan opposition to family planning and to Planned Parenthood by the congressional leadership and anyone running for president that we’re seeing now.

Richards failed to mention Lugar lost his bid for re-election to a pro-life Republican who favors de-funding Planned Parenthood.