Democrats Chide GOP for ‘Mistreatment’ of Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards

Though he’s shaking hands with Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards in this photograph, Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and other members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee behaved in a manner that caused their Democratic counterparts — including democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders — to issue a strongly-worded letter on Friday. (Photo: Getty Images)

On Friday evening, Senate Democrats sent a letter to Republican leadership criticizing the behavior on display during this past Tuesday’s House Oversight and Government Reform (OGR) Committee hearing with Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards.

During the 5-hour hearing, Richards sustained repetitive, seemingly-uninformed questioning that did not have much to do with the issue that brought about the hearings in the first place — whether Planned Parenthood illegally profited from fetal tissue donation from abortions performed at its centers.

Questions instead centered on Richard’s salary, the relationship between number of abortions performed and breast cancer screenings performed (there is none) at the women’s healthcare organization, and Richards was often shouted at by congressmen and congresswomen who didn’t seem to have a firm grasp on the American healthcare system. (There was also one unfortunate wink and a patronizing ask of whether Richards expected easier treatment for being a woman.)

In their letter, the 21 Democrat senators who co-signed express their “serious concern” over the “political theater and striking disrespect demonstrated by House Republicans” during the hearing. The proceedings, they say, “showed a willful disregard for and a misunderstanding of women’s access to healthcare, which was purportedly the core issue at hand” and displayed an “unacceptable” and “offensive” “mistreatment” of Richards. Such behavior “erodes Americans’ trust in their government,” they write.

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The letter also notes that six states have already cleared Planned Parenthood of wrongdoing after completion of state-level investigations following the release of the undercover “sting” videos released this summer by the antiabortion activist group the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) and that an additional seven states have elected to decline conducting their own state-wide investigations into the non-profit reproductive and sexual healthcare provider after concluding that there was not enough evidence to justify an investigation.

The signers of the letter were Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Gary Peters (D-MI), Harry Reid (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

Meanwhile, the Republican-led House passed a bill on Tuesday while the hearing with Richards was being conducted that, if signed into law, would give states the right to eliminate as a Medicaid provider any health care professional who performs or participates in abortion care. In other words, despite the promise of a veto from President Obama, House Republicans have again decided to expend time, effort, and resources into a show measure that would, in effect, defund Planned Parenthood.

It is a tricky, albeit unproductive, gambit — especially after the Senate blocked the House-approved bills to end all federal funding to Planned Parenthood and implement a federal 20-week abortion ban with incredibly limited exceptions.

As the Center for Budget and Public Policy’s Judith Solomon wrote in a white paper on H.R. 3495 earlier this week, “Medicaid is the largest funder of family planning services, and Planned Parenthood is a major provider of those services for low-income women. In over two-thirds of counties with a Planned Parenthood clinic, the clinics serve at least half of all women receiving publicly funded contraceptive services; in one-fifth of the counties, Planned Parenthood serves all such women.”

Related: The Psychology of Why Carly Fiorina Continues To Defend Planned Parenthood Claims

And that’s not all.

This past Wednesday, the House’s Energy and Commerce committee met for the second-time to mark-up the reconciliation (aka - filibuster proof) measure that would repeal the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known colloquially as Obamacare. The measure would prevent Medicaid reimbursements to be issued for one year to any “prohibited entity” healthcare provider; a provider would become prohibited by primarily practicing family planning or reproductive health services (including abortion). In other words, it is yet another attempt to eliminate Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider.

Should it pass, the reconciliation measure could severely restrict the healthcare access of those who receive Medicaid coverage. Federal funds, including Medicaid, are already withheld from covering abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the woman. Because of how the measure is worded, it could ultimately impact a broad range of healthcare providers and interfere with women’s — and physicians —choices regarding their own medical decisions and practices.

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