National pro-life leaders agree the news that Cecile Richards is planning to step down as president of Planned Parenthood comes as her organization is now viewed as a leftwing political movement that places “abortion above all else” and has little to offer where health care is concerned.
Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood facility director and founder of And Then There Were None, an organization that helps abortion workers leave the industry, observes that actual “health care” has deteriorated at Planned Parenthood during Richards’ reign:
If Cecile Richards is indeed resigning her position as president of the nation’s largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, she leaves a trail of misery in her wake – over 2.5 million babies aborted on her watch, a decrease of 51% in breast cancer screenings, a grand total of zero mammograms, a drop of 65% in pap smears, and an organization that has eschewed healthcare in favor of building a political movement by serving 670,540 less patients since 2006.
Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report shows a decline in many of whatever health care services are offered in its clinics, while its profits – driven by abortions performed – have risen dramatically.
“Under the leadership of Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood has grown to push one agenda – abortion above all else – while throwing aside any inkling of actual medical care,” Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, said in a statement sent to Breitbart News.
The organization’s “abortion above all else” narrative made headlines last week when Planned Parenthood condemned the House’s approval of a bill that would require abortionists to immediately provide emergency medical care to an infant born alive during an abortion.
Nance also observes that during Richards’ tenure, Planned Parenthood “has been exposed for refusing to report statutory rape and abuse, for aiding sex traffickers, for taking money to abort black babies, and for illegally profiting off of the body parts they have aborted.”
Americans United for Life CEO and President Catherine Glenn Foster suggests pro-life activists remain wary of who will replace Richards as president:
Despite Planned Parenthood’s record of health and safety violations, pattern of enabling abuse, and demonstrated waste of government funding, the organization has received more than $5.6 billion in taxpayer dollars over the last twelve years, and pocketed more than $600 million in profit. It seems that America’s abortion giant, under Ms. Richards’ leadership, cares less about providing vital healthcare to women in need and more about lining its own pockets.
So, while it may seem to be cause for celebration that Ms. Richards is leaving the organization that has come to be known more for cover-ups, agitation, and political cronyism than for genuine healthcare, the jury is still out as to who may replace her at the top of America’s biggest abortion chain.
Nevertheless, Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, says it is “great news” that Richards is departing from Planned Parenthood.
Noting the fact that the U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into the abortion vendor, Newman suggests, “Could it be that Richards is getting out while she can, before indictments are handed down?”
“Or could it be that Planned Parenthood now sees her as a liability with all her connections to others under criminal investigation such as Hillary Clinton, the beleaguered Clinton Foundation, and Fusion GPS?” he asks. “Whether she is abandoning a sinking ship or being kicked to the curb by Planned Parenthood, this reveals a destabilized abortion organization, and as long as they are disorganized, it means they won’t be expanding their abortion empire.”
The investigative journalist who released a series of videos that alleged to show Planned Parenthood executives engaged in haggling over the prices of aborted baby body parts to boost profits, calls Richards a “devoted practitioner” of her organization’s “out of sight, out of mind” mantra.
David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress said in a statement that after his video series led to multiple congressional investigations, Richards’ decision to step down “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.”
“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,” he added.
Nance suggests that Planned Parenthood can no longer afford to prop up its old narrative that it provides women’s health care.
“If Planned Parenthood is serious about standing up for the women they claim to represent, they will hire someone who understands medicine and accepts the facts that abortion does not help women but only inflicts harm and destruction,” she said. “This is their chance to turn the organization around for the good and actually help women, instead of constantly telling them they cannot fulfill their dreams without abortion.”
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins agrees, stating that Richards leaves a legacy of “broken lives in her wake.”
“Her departure is evidence of the collapsing abortion industry, whose ugly reality was revealed in the horrific Center for Medical Progress undercover videos in which ghoulish Planned Parenthood workers and vendors gloated about the money they were making,” she added. “Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion. Yet Richards has deceived the American people about the harmful impacts of abortion and the ugly realities of the predatory industry that she leads. Thankfully their own reports show that Planned Parenthood is losing patients.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.