Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards stated that “some of the comments” at her Congressional testimony “were pretty sexist” on Tuesday’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC.
Richards was asked, one of the things that Republican members of Congress really did badger you about today was your salary. And Democrats on the panel sort of sprung to your defense, said that it was sexist of them to go after you for that since they never do the same for male CEOs, for example. Do you share their take on it? Do you think that’s what was going on there?”
She responded, “I don’t really know. I mean, I do think some of the comments were pretty sexist. But actually, I think it was because they didn’t have anything else to talk about. And I think that was really my feeling about this hearing, which is, we’re talking about a federal program, Medicaid. We serve 2.7 million people at Planned Parenthood. We take it very seriously. those are folks who come to us voluntarily. They come to us because they appreciate the healthcare we provide. In many areas of the country, we maybe the only appointment they can get for cancer screenings or birth control. But it seemed like they didn’t really want to talk about any issues that were relevant to the topic at hand. And I — and frankly, I was a bit dismayed at how little the — many members of the committee even knew about women’s health at all.”
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