Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood Attack U.S. Catholic Bishops for Defending Life

Deacon Keith Fournier writes about a full-frontal assault on the U.S. Bishops and the Church's pro-life teachings by one of President Obama's good friends and key pro-abort allies, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - An article entitled “Bishops' Health Care Far From Universal” recently appeared in the Huffington Post and was widely distributed in the Anti-Life blogosphere. Written by Cecile Richards, the President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, it wrongfully and disrespectfully attacked the Catholic Bishops of the United States as somehow “anti-woman”.

However, it also revealed the truth that she and her colleagues insist is some sort of a “Myth” manufactured by the Pro-Life community; Abortion is a part of the current Health Care Reform Plan proposals. Ms. Richards and her cohorts are feeling the heat. The lie behind the denial of this fact is being revealed and the majority of Americans do not want tax dollars used for abortion, in spite of her claims to the contrary.

In her first paragraph, after an initial diatribe against the leaders of the Catholic Church, she asks the following question: “Since when does universal health care mean denying comprehensive reproductive health care supported by the majority of Americans?” She continues a few lines down “…Seems that, if the U.S. Conference (of catholic Bishops) had its way, the national health care system would make American women second-class citizens and deny them access to benefits they currently have.…The danger, of course, is not simply that the bishops are pushing to erode decades of legal access to contraception and abortion in America. Their hard-line opposition to women's rights also endangers millions of women around the globe -- where women also need universal health care access. The effort to criminalize access to safe abortion endangers most women in the developing world -- the very women that you would think the bishops would be concerned about.”

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At the end of her recent attack on the U.S. Bishops Ms. Richards concluded with these words “…We call upon Congress and the White House to continue to stand firmly on the side of women in health care reform. Women are needed to pass health care reform - and we are not going backwards and we are not going away”. I believe there are millions of women who find her presumptuous claim to be empowered to speak for them deeply offensive. That does not even include the millions of girl children in the womb who cannot be heard. It is time for all of those women to raise their voice in opposition to her anti-life message and her organization. It is also why we must oppose any effort to include the taking of the lives of children in the womb under any “Health Care Reform.”

[Read the whole thing]

Here's more about Richards and her close ties to the President: "Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards in cozy with Obama".




UPDATE
More from The Catholic League: "Planned Parenthood Rips Bishops":

... Cecile Richards is now accusing the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops of seeking to make “American women second-class citizens.” And that’s just the danger they are doing at home. Abroad, “their hard-line opposition to women’s rights also endangers millions of women around the globe.” Why they haven’t been locked up, she does not say.

Richards was recently summoned to the White House to discuss health care reform. Is this the kind of advice she was given—to lash out at Catholic bishops? If not, then someone needs to rein her in before the whole health care package blows up in their face.

Richards is either ignorant or lying when she says “comprehensive reproductive health care [is] supported by the majority of Americans.” In fact, nearly two in three Americans (63 percent) favor laws preventing the use of taxpayer funds for abortions. But no matter, data never convince ideologues.

This is great. The American people are called fascists by U.S. Congressmen because they oppose the health care bills now on the table, and Catholic bishops are told by one of the leading proponents of health care reform that they are a threat to human rights. This is the politics of self-destruction on steroids.

(emphasis added)