Planned Parenthood President on Trump: Abortion ‘Under Assault Like Never Before’

Leana Wen, President of Planned Parenthood, speaks during a press conference on the reintr
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
Dr. Susan Berry

The president of Planned Parenthood told abortion rights activists Saturday that under the Trump administration, abortion on demand is “under assault like never before.”

At a Planned Parenthood-led forum at the University of South Carolina for the Democrat 2020 candidates, Dr. Leana Wen told attendees the Trump administration and Republican-led states that have restricted abortion are enacting policies that are “dangerous” to women.

“We are here to say that anyone who wants to be president of our country must understand that reproductive health care is health care, and health care is a human right that must be guaranteed to all, not a privilege available only to some,” Wen shouted.

“Over 100 years ago, Planned Parenthood was founded on the simple idea that your body is your own,” she continued, ignoring naming the abortion business’s founder, Margaret Sanger, a known eugenicist.

Wen said “dangerous” policies that restrict abortion have been seen “even in the last 48 hours.”

“When a court let the Trump-Pence administration enforce its dangerous, illegal, and unethical ‘gag’ rule,” she explained. “And when the state of Missouri weaponized the licensing process again to try to ban abortion in the entire state.”

Wen referred to the fact that, on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held the Trump administration’s rule that ends taxpayer family planning funding of abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood may take effect.

In February, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the new rule that could block about $60 million in family planning funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers who refer girls and women for abortions.

The new regulation, which governs Title X, the federal grant program that provides funding for family planning services, prohibits the use of the funds to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.”

As a result of the rule, which marks a clear line between abortion and family planning, Planned Parenthood and other abortion vendors who wish to continue to receive Title X family planning funds would have to either end their abortion services from all locations that receive the Title X funding, or move those abortion services offsite to an entirely different location.

In Missouri, state health officials denied a license to a St. Louis Planned Parenthood abortion clinic — the only abortion facility in the state — after finding numerous health and safety violations.

Planned Parenthood claimed the state required women to undergo two pelvic examinations prior to abortion, but health officials emphasized Missouri has only ever required one exam.

According to a report at pro-life watchdog organization Operation Rescue, the state health department modified a regulation requiring a pelvic exam 72 hours prior to surgical abortion, allowing the exam instead to be performed either 72 hours before the procedure or just prior to the abortion.

The report noted Dr. Randall Williams, state health department director, said at a press conference Friday, “The rule change would allow the pelvic exam to be done either 72-hours before the abortion or just prior to the abortion.”

Operation Rescue added:

Williams also emphasized that the rule change only applies to surgical abortion procedures. Medication abortions still required a pelvic exam 72-hours prior to dispensing abortion-inducing drugs. Currently, RHS Planned Parenthood has refused to comply with that requirement and is prohibited from conducting medication abortions.

Pro-life organization Students for Life of America (SFLA) rallied out front of the Planned Parenthood forum dubbed “We Decide,” protesting the abortion extremism of the Democrat Party and its 2020 hopefuls.

Michele Hendrickson, SFLA eastern regional director, said Planned Parenthood is out of touch with the views of most Americans.

“Americans do not want Planned Parenthood’s vision for our country,” she said in a statement, adding:

A poll this year from Students for Life of America found that only seven percent of Millennials can stomach the abortion extremism of the Democratic Party, whose platform supports abortion through all nine months, for any reason at all, and taxpayer funded. Planned Parenthood’s so-called healthcare event ignores the obvious – pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion.

Addressing the vision of Planned Parenthood and the Democrat Party, Hendrickson said during remarks at the protest, “Abortion is not health care.”

“The abortion lobby can use all the euphemisms they want, but the American people and this pro-life generation will not be fooled,” she said. “Young people know the truth: abortion takes the life of an innocent human being.”

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