Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Rundown With José Díaz-Balart,” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said this week’s attempt to defund Planned Parenthood in light of videos that show Planned Parenthood doctors negotiating over the price of fetal tissue is “a war on women’s health” that has been going on for almost a hundred years.
Boxer said, “It’s a war on women’s health. It’s not about abortion. Planned Parenthood spends 97 percent of its dollars on non-abortion related services such as breast cancer screenings and pap smears and stopping the spread of STDs. They serve 2.7 million people in America every year, 500,000 of those happen to be Hispanic. It is a very important health care organization. And this attack started from the day Planned Parenthood was found founded in 1916 when the founder was arrested for trying to distribute birth control to poor women. So it’s a constant battle here. I can’t believe in this century we are still battling against women’s health.”
On the use of fetal tissue Boxer said, “This has been going on since the 1930s and led to the vaccine against polio, and it has led to the vaccine against shingles and rubella. If you’re against fetal tissue research, when I say you, you or anybody else, Let’s have that battle. It’s totally legal … but that’s not what this is about.”
She continued, “If it was about this group, by the way, one of the leaders there was once arrested for trying to bomb a women’s health care clinic in San Diego, another one said it’s justifiable to kill a doctor. This is what we’re talking about. So I stand with the people of this country who know Planned Parenthood is a health care organization and what they do is legal. And what they do is important and saves lives, particularly minority women.”
“This whole thing is a vicious attack against an organization that has been with us since 1916 that has helped women plan their families which is basically a health care organization, not one dime of federal money goes for ending pregnancy. It all goes for health care,” she added.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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