3.5 MILLION ABORTIONS LATER, CECILE RICHARDS TO LEAVE PLANNED PARENTHOOD
BY DAVE BOHON
SEE: https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/28127-3-5-million-abortions-later-cecile-richards-to-leave-planned-parenthood;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Top abortion advocate Cecile Richards (shown) plans to step down as
the head of Planned Parenthood after 12 years at the helm of the
nation's leading abortion provider, reported the Washington Post January 24.While neither Richards nor Planned Parenthood has confirmed the news, a spokesperson for the abortion giant said that Richards planned to “to discuss 2018 and the next steps for Planned Parenthood’s future at the upcoming board meeting.”
The Post reported that rumors of Richards' retirement from the “non-profit” have been circulating through the liberal political world for several months, and according to “people with knowledge of the decision, there was talk before the 2016 election that if Hillary Clinton won the presidency, Richards was ready to move on.”
The abortion giant's own annual report for 2016-17 shows that during that time it was responsible for 321,384 abortions while reaping $543.7 million in government subsidies — nearly 40 percent of the organization's $1.46 billion budget.
Additionally, during that reporting period abortions made up 96 percent of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy services, while prenatal services, miscarriage care, and adoption referrals accounted for only four percent. In fact, for every adoption referral Planned Parenthood made during 2016, it performed more than 82 abortions.
Pro-life leader Troy Newman suggested that Richards departure may have been expedited by President Trump's aggressive stand against abortion compared to that of Obama, along with an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into Planned Parenthood practices.
“Planned Parenthood is under investigation by the Department of Justice for illegally trafficking in aborted baby remains and other crimes,” noted Newman, who heads the group Operation Rescue. “Could it be that Richards is getting out while she can, before indictments are handed down?”
David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, the organizations whose investigation uncovered Planned Parenthood's harvesting of baby body tissue for sale, recalled that during her tenure “Cecile Richards was the most devoted practitioner of Planned Parenthood’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mantra to cover up their barbaric abortion business from the public. As Planned Parenthood faces federal criminal investigation from the FBI and DOJ for selling aborted baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains, Richards’ departure shows that the old strategy is no longer working — the secret is out that Planned Parenthood is a taxpayer-sponsored crime syndicate of industrial-scale child killing, and even Cecile Richards can no longer put a friendly spin on it.”
With the nation having a pro-life president and increasing numbers of states passing legislation designed to protect the unborn and their mothers, “Planned Parenthood is swimming against the tide of history,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life organization Susan B. Anthony List. “Its public favor is on the wane as pro-life momentum is on the rise. Her successor is left with an impossible job: sell a scandal-laden, failing organization that ... provides pregnant women with prenatal care only 2.3 percent of the time.”
Putting a spiritual spin on Richards' impending departure from the abortion giant, Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life commented, “I always say a prayer when someone like Cecile Richards has a change in her job, because it can be an opportunity for her to evaluate more clearly what she has been doing and why.” Pavone added, however, that the larger issue “is not the personnel who lead Planned Parenthood, but the corrupt and criminal enterprise that the organization itself is. Whoever serves it, in any capacity, is wounded and distorted in conscience. The whole enterprise needs to be closed.”
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Cecile Richards Announces Resignation From Planned Parenthood, But Says She’s
‘Proud’ of Her Work
BY HEATHER CLARK
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
WASHINGTON — Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards announced on
Friday that she is resigning from her position with the abortion and
contraception giant, but in no way recanted her work with the organization.Rather, Richards praised Planned Parenthood and spoke glowingly about the 12 years that she had spent leading the sexually-centered business.
“Twelve years ago, I joined Planned Parenthood to fight for a world where every woman can live her best life, and together, we’ve built a movement to protect reproductive health,” she said in a video statement. “And I could not be prouder.”
“From my first moment at Planned Parenthood, I have been in awe of our brave doctors, clinicians, staff and volunteers who provide care to one in five American women,” Richards said. “And to all of you who count on Planned Parenthood, know that this organization will be here for you, no matter where you live, how much money you make, who you love or where you come from.”
She claimed that Planned Parenthood has been an integral part of the country and has helped to save lives as rates for unintended pregnancy and abortion have fallen in recent years.
“Planned Parenthood has been a part of the fabric of this country for 100 years, and thanks to you, it will be here for 100 more,” Richards remarked. “… Planned Parenthood has helped tens of millions take control of their health and their futures providing birth control, pap smears, breast exams, STI testing and treatment, and safe and legal abortion.”
“Today, America is at a 30-year low for unintended pregnancies, and historic lows for abortion and teen pregnancy. This is one of the most important public health success stories in America’s history, and it would not have been possible without the life-changing and life-saving work of Planned Parenthood,” she asserted.
Richards stated that it was an “honor” to be both a patient and president of Planned Parenthood, and advised that she will be a “lifelong supporter and champion” of the organization’s purposes.
She has not yet advised what her plans are going forward, or why she decided to leave, other than remarking in an email, “[T]he time has come for me to move on to my next chapter—and for new voices to take the lead at Planned Parenthood.”
The Center for Medical Progress (CMP), which has been one of the most prominent opponents of Planned Parenthood—and exposed the organization’s practice of transferring the body parts of aborted babies to for-profit biomedical companies—opined that Richards’ announcement could signal problems within the organization.
“After CMP’s revealing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood’s top abortion doctors and the damning findings of multiple Congressional probes, Richards’ departure shows that the old strategy is no longer working as Planned Parenthood faces federal criminal investigation for selling aborted baby hearts, lungs, livers, and brains,” said director David Daleiden. “Planned Parenthood’s new leadership should commit to full transparency with the Department of Justice and with the public, and to ending this taxpayer-funded criminal abortion enterprise once and for all.”
As previously reported, according to its annual report, Planned Parenthood performed 321,384 abortions during the 2016-2017 fiscal year. Government funding was the largest source of revenue for the organization, as it received over $543 million in the year alone, down slightly from $554 million in 2015-2016. $532 million came from private contributions and grants. With all the sources of income combined, Planned Parenthood generated over $1.45 billion in revenue throughout the fiscal year.
As previously reported, Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, who was a staunch advocate of eugenics, made a correlation between birth control and the purification of the races, referring to those with disabilities as being “morons,” “idiots” and “imbeciles.”
“Birth control itself, often denounced as a violation of natural law, is nothing more or less than the facilitation of the process of weeding out the unfit, of preventing the birth of defectives or of those who will become defectives,” she wrote in “Woman and the New Race.” “If we are to make racial progress, this development of womanhood must precede motherhood in every individual woman.”
“The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be faced immediately,” Sanger also contended in her publication “The Pivot of Civilization.” “Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives.”
