Former Planned Parenthood President: Conservatives ‘More Willing to Lie, Cheat, Steal, Deceive, Break the Law’ than Progressives

Former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said in an interview published this week that she thinks conservatives have an “advantage” because they are “so much more willing to lie, cheat, steal, deceive, break the law — tactics that frankly we don’t use in the progressive community.”

The Department of Justice confirmed in December that Planned Parenthood is under federal investigation in the wake of allegations the abortion chain harvests the body parts of aborted babies to sell for a profit.

In an interview with Salon, Amanda Marcotte asked Richards why she believes “nonprofits like Planned Parenthood” have experienced an “escalation of … attacks.”

Left-wing media often portrays Planned Parenthood as a “nonprofit,” even though the group profits extensively from abortions. Planned Parenthood’s 2016-2017 annual report shows the organization boosted its profits by $21 million, or 27 percent, from the previous year, all the while it took in nearly $544 million in taxpayer funding for its “nonprofit” non-abortion services, many of which are in decline.

Richards responded:

I don’t exactly know what accounts for it. Obviously, there were a couple of groups that specialize in this. I think that one of the things that I see on the right is they are so much more willing to lie, cheat, steal, deceive, break the law — tactics that frankly we don’t use in the progressive community. I do think that they have that advantage. The other is, they’ve got a lot of money. People who really probably could care less about the issue, but have complete focus on undermining any progressive institution that has either capacity or political power.

Richards is making the rounds on talk shows and in interviews to promote her book, Make Trouble.

During the interview, Marcotte said to her:

You write in the book that Planned Parenthood was dealing with fake news before that term even became famous. You were subject to a series of hoaxes, falsely accusing the organization of all sorts of terrible things, including that you sell baby parts. You were called in front of Congress to defend yourself against these ridiculous hoaxes. What is your advice to the rest of us in the age of Trump, when lying and hoaxes unfortunately becoming normal in politics?

“Yeah. Look it’s a big problem,” Richards replied. “I wish I had the magic solution. And I will say that because in many ways, Planned Parenthood was up first, we have worked with so many other organizations who’ve also been targets of these kinds of fake news attacks and undercover videos.”