Former Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) had a very liberal record during her tenure, twice vetoing a ban on partial birth abortions.
A recent hidden camera investigation caught Granholm misrepresenting the true nature of Michigan’s abortion laws, saying that they were more restrictive than they actually are in what appears to be an effort to downplay the horrors of late term abortions.
The video was taken by a citizen journalist who wishes to remain anonymous and has provided the video exclusively to Breitbart News. In the short one minute video, taken on June 27, 2015 at the Ohio Democratic Party’s Annual State Dinner, the journalist approaches Granholm and asks her a hypothetical question about a late term abortion.
The young man introduces himself to Granholm and shakes her hand. “I wanted to ask for a picture,” he says, “and I just wanted to say, I’m a big fan of the way you fought for women’s reproductive rights in Michigan.”
Granholm, nodding, replies, “Oh, I appreciate you saying that.”
“It’s a big deal,” he continues, “and this is a question I get a lot, and I never seem to be able to get a great answer for it, when I’ll have a friend of mine who’s Catholic or something like that, and he’ll say, why do you think it’s OK to abort a seven pound infant? How am I supposed to respond to that?”
“Seven pounds?” Granholm asks incredulously. “Who would, nobody would, it’s illegal to abort a seven pound infant. I mean, a fetus, it’s totally different. An embryo is different than a seven pound [infant].”
“So I should just say something like, that’s crazy?” he asks her again.
“Say that it’s illegal,” says Granholm. “You can’t do it. Say something like that. You can’t do it. That’s crazy.”
He then thanks her, gets a photo, and the video ends.
The trouble for Granholm is that it is, sadly, not actually illegal to abort a seven pound infant in Michigan. According to research by the Guttmacher Institute, a liberal think tank that works “to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights,” the following restrictions on abortion are in effect in Michigan (as of July 1, 2015):
- A woman must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage her from having an abortion and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.
- Abortion is covered in private insurance policies only in cases of life endangerment, unless an optional rider is purchased at an additional cost.
- Health plans that will be offered in the state’s health exchange under the Affordable Care Act can only cover abortion in cases when the woman’s life is endangered, unless an optional rider is purchased at an additional cost.
- Abortion is covered in insurance policies for public employees only in cases of life endangerment.
- The use of telemedicine for the performance of medication abortion is prohibited.
- The parent of a minor must consent before an abortion is provided.
- Public funding is available for abortion only in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest.
Nowhere on that list is any sort of ban on aborting viable unborn babies or indeed, any sort of ban on late-term abortions.
The Guttmacher Institute was founded in 1968 as a semi-autonomous division of Planned Parenthood, and is named after a former Planned Parenthood president, Alan Frank Guttmacher. In other words, this organization is opposed to restrictions on abortion and would be motivated to make sure they were not omitting any major restrictions on what they deem to be a “reproductive right.”
So what is the reason for Granholm’s confusion? Could she really be that ignorant of the laws of the state she governed for eight years, or is this reflective of the pro-choice efforts to downplay the horrors of late-term abortion? A seven pound infant is a far cry from the “clump of cells” description that groups like Planned Parenthood try to assign to the life they are wishing to snuff out; it’s a full term baby, above the threshold of healthy weight to be born.
Granholm is not the only pro-abortion Democratic politician to make this same misrepresentation that aborting seven pound unborn children is not legal or not happening.
Former Texas State Senator and failed gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis (D) was caught as part of a similar video investigation, claiming that the abortion of seven pound infants “never really happens.” Davis continued, saying that “the only time that late term abortions occur is when something has gone horribly wrong and either the mother’s life is in danger or the child’s life is in a very precarious situation,” and urging to not judge other people’s “personal choices.”
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz looked even more ridiculous after she was challenged by reporters on the question of late term abortion after Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was asked about abortion exemptions, and he replied with a challenge to the DNC:
We always seem to have the debate way over here on what are the exact details of exemptions and where it starts. Why don’t we ask the DNC if it’s okay to kill a 7-pound baby in the uterus.
You go back and you ask Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) if she’s okay with killing a 7-pound baby that’s not born yet. You ask her when life begins and you ask her if she’s willing to protect life. When you get an answer from Debbie, get back to me.
“I support letting women and their doctors make this decision without government getting involved,” replied Wasserman-Schultz. “Period. End of story.”
These pro-abortion Democrats may not want to admit it, but late term abortions are legal, and are tragically happening, in many parts of the U.S. As mentioned, that late in a pregnancy, it is not a clump of cells, but instead a viable living human. This point is reaffirmed by the shocking news that broke this week of Planned Parenthood’s top doctor discussing selling fetal organs and other tissues that remain after an abortion.
The unborn child is certainly not a clump of cells if it has a heart, lungs, and a liver, that the abortionist would endeavor not to crush with the forceps during the abortion procedure.
Granholm does not want to admit that such horrifying late term abortions are happening, much less in her home state. She might be “ready for Hillary” Clinton, as she posted on Facebook back in 2013, but neither she nor Clinton are ready to tell the truth about the late term abortion procedures they support.
Image: Jennifer Granholm via Facebook.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.