Planned Parenthood president slams Fiorina for video ‘lie’

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards took Carly Fiorina to task for her “lie” about a video that purports to show a live-birth abortion at a women’s health center.

{mosads}“It is extraordinary that someone running for president would lie in that way,” Richards said in an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd published on Saturday. “This has been completely discredited by every reputable news source. And yet Carly Fiorina seems to continue to repeat the same lie.”

Richards said the undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that appear to show Planned Parenthood executives trafficking fetal body parts from abortions are “distortive” and “deceptive.”

She also said the tone of Planned Parenthood executives in the undercover videos does not reflect the “compassionate care that our doctors and clinicians provide to 2.7 million patients.”

Richards said only one percent of Planned Parenthood clinics donate fetal parts from abortions for scientific research, and reimbursements associated with the trade only go toward transfer, storage and legal costs.

Richards said the outrage over the videos, which prompted the House Oversight Committee to subpoena her for a hearing last week, is a pretext for those who really want to restrict abortion rights.

“I think all of this, and certainly this hearing this week, it’s not about fetal tissue research,” she said. “It’s about whether, frankly, abortion is going to be safe and legal for women in the United States of America.”

She said the Republican Party has abandoned moderate conservatives who think abortion should be permissible in some circumstances.

“What’s disturbing to me is that, in fact, the leadership in the Republican Party, not Republicans,” Richards said. “We have Republican board members, patients, employees. And they’re very disturbed to see that the Republican Party leadership, not the party, has abandoned mainstream moderate Republicans.”

She said the conservative mantra of limited government is inconsistent with calls for restrictions on abortion.

– Updated at 12:34 p.m.