SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
February, 10 2011, 03:49pm EDT
Contact:
212-261-4433 or,media.office@ppfa.org,.
Statement by Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, on Rep. Mike Pence's Press Conference to Defund Planned Parenthood
"In the last two days, House leadership and Representative Mike Pence have made their agenda for this country abundantly clear: target women's health care programs and women's health providers under the guise of deficit reduction.
WASHINGTON
"In the last two days, House leadership and Representative Mike Pence have made their agenda for this country abundantly clear: target women's health care programs and women's health providers under the guise of deficit reduction.
"The House Republican leadership's latest proposal to completely eliminate the national family planning program, called Title X, is outrageous. This is an extreme and dangerous proposal that would abolish a program that provides lifesaving, preventive care to millions of women each year and saves taxpayers money This program has helped millions of women since 1970, when President Richard M. Nixon signed it into law.
"Simply put, eliminating the national family planning program will result in millions of women across the country losing access to basic primary and preventive health care, such as lifesaving cancer screenings, contraception, HIV testing and counseling, STI testing and treatment, and annual exams. For six in 10 women who receive medical care from doctors and nurses at family planning health centers like those run by Planned Parenthood, these centers are their main source of health care.
"If these proposals pass, more women will find out later than they should that they have cancer and many more women will be at risk for unintended pregnancies.
"In addition, Representative Pence's proposal to exclude Planned Parenthood from all critical public health funding streams will hurt Americans -- taking away health care that millions of women receive today. Representative Pence's proposal is an unprecedented, ideological attack on a specific health care provider that will result in more women losing access to the very basic health care they need.
"It is unconscionable that Representative Mike Pence and other members of Congress would link arms in a press conference today with Live Action, a discredited extremist organization whose leader has called for abortions to take place in public.
"There is a coordinated and highly political effort to undermine Planned Parenthood and the health care we provide. This effort includes fraudulent activities driven by organizations with a clear mission to eliminate family planning, birth control, and legal abortion. Simply put, their goal is to prevent women from accessing reproductive health care services. That is unacceptable and immoral.
"Representative Mike Pence's bill to defund Planned Parenthood and his support to eliminate the national family planning program (Title X) is bad policy and bad politics. That's why we urge Congress to reject this dangerous proposal."
BACKGROUND:
Other members of Congress scheduled for attendance: Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC), Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY), Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD).
Data on Representative's states receiving Title X funding:
Indiana Title X Funding details:
28 health centers
77,364 clients served
14,440 patients Title X
50.11% of Title X female contraceptive patients served by Planned Parenthood
67,719 STI Tests
16,435 Pap Tests
20,908 Breast Exams
Maryland Title X Funding details:
Receives Title X Funding
10 health centers
36,369 clients served
15,621 patients Title X
32.76% of Title X female contraceptive patients served by Planned Parenthood
40,491 STI Tests
7,878 Pap Tests
7,528 Breast Exams
Missouri Title X Funding details:
Receives Title X Funding
17 health centers
52,382 clients served
18,631 patients Title X
42.35% of Title X female contraceptive patients served by Planned Parenthood
74,944 STI Tests
13,177 Pap Tests
13,034 Breast Exams
New York Title X Funding details:
Receives Title X Funding
68 health centers
223,148 clients served
153,290 patients Title X
58.11% of Title X female contraceptive patients served by Planned Parenthood
321,913 STI Tests
71,804 Pap Tests
70,555 Breast Exams
North Carolina Title X Funding details:
9 health centers
30,066 clients served
602 patients Title X
8.02% of Title X female contraceptive patients served by Planned Parenthood
20,215 STI Tests
5,777 Pap Tests
5,456 Breast Exams
Ohio Title X Funding details:
35 health centers
97,441 clients served
63,529 patients Title X
56.58% of Title X female contraceptive patients served by Planned Parenthood
110,910 STI Tests
24,193 Pap Tests
23,231 Breast Exams
Live Action's History of Deceptive Editing
Several news organizations have analyzed Live Action tapes, and found evidence of selective editing to create a false impression. Live Action has a history of using deceptive tactics and doctoring video.
2011: Roanoke Times Editorial: Scam video. An editorial in the Roanoke Times rebutted Live Action's edited tape, saying: "Live Action's scurrilous attempts to portray Virginia Planned Parenthood clinics, including the one in Roanoke, as willing facilitators of the sexual exploitation of girls must be denounced for what they are: lies.... What Live Action's surreptitious taping does not -- indeed, could not possibly -- show is the clinic staff's real response to their strange, disturbing visitor." (Roanoke Times editorial, 2/8/11) https://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/276293
2010: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Rebuts Live Action's edited tape in Wisconsin. An editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel exposed Live Action's edited tape, saying: "Live Action says there were conflicting statements in the video about fetal viability, when it's a baby and heart tones vs. heartbeats. But a viewing of the fullest tape available reveals that the clinician and doctor go to lengths to tell the woman about embryonic and fetal development. She leaves before she can be examined." (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/2/2010) https://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/99791324.html
2009: Los Angeles Times Rebuts Live Action's edited tape in Indianapolis. The Los Angeles Times analyzed a videotape Live Action made inside an Indianapolis Planned Parenthood health center and said, "The conversation in the uncut version is more nuanced than the edited five-minute version, and includes a staffer stating emphatically, 'We have to follow the laws,' and another urging Rose to tell her mother about the pregnancy." (Los Angeles Times; 4/26/09) https://articles.latimes.com/print/2009/apr/26/nation/na-abortion26
CNN: Live Action videos reminiscent of edited O'Keefe videos. CNN reports, "the Live Action videos are reminiscent of those by right-wing videographer James O'Keefe.... O'Keefe's videos were found in at least two investigations to be so heavily edited as to be an unreliable record of what happened, showing no evidence of any wrongdoing by ACORN staff members.... The Live Action videos also appear to be heavily edited." [https://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/02/08/abortion.video.retraining/]
Media Matters: Live Action Doctors and Manipulates Video. According to an analysis by Media Matters, "Live Action also appears to have doctored the audio of its Richmond'sting,' moving audio from one portion of their video to a different portion." (Media Matters: "Why Is Live Action Doctoring Its Planned Parenthood Audio?"; 2/4/11)
https://mediamatters.org/blog/201102040026
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is many things to many people. We are a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital health care services, sex education, and sexual health information to millions of women, men, and young people.
LATEST NEWS
House GOP Accused of 'Waging War on America's Wildlife' With Proposed Spending Cuts
"This budget proposal shows yet again the extremes to which anti-wildlife members of Congress will go to sacrifice endangered species," said one conservationist.
Jul 14, 2025
As Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives begin work on spending legislation for fiscal year 2026, conservationists and congressional Democrats are blasting a key appropriations bill released Monday.
"House Republicans are once again waging war on America's wildlife in yet another giveaway to their industry allies," said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. "Extinction isn't inevitable, it's a political choice. The Appropriations Committee has one job to do, which is to fund the government, not decide whether our most vulnerable animals get to survive."
The bill that the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee is set to consider on Tuesday morning would not only slash funding for the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—by 23%—and the Fish and Wildlife Service, but also strip Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from animals including gray wolves, the center noted.
"This budget proposal shows yet again the extremes to which anti-wildlife members of Congress will go to sacrifice endangered species," declared Robert Dewey, vice president of government relations at Defenders of Wildlife. "The bill is loaded with riders that attack the Endangered Species Act and would put some of America's most iconic species, including the grizzly bear and wolverine, at serious risk of extinction."
"The bill and all who support it are compromising the crucial habitats, outdoor recreation areas, and natural resources that Americans and wildlife rely on."
The legislation would block funding for listing the greater sage-grouse as well as money to protect the northern long-eared bat, the lesser prairie-chicken, and captive fish listed under the ESA. It would also block the Biden administration's rules for the landmark law.
"By blocking protections for public lands while also providing short-sighted lease sales for the benefit of oil and gas corporations, the bill and all who support it are compromising the crucial habitats, outdoor recreation areas, and natural resources that Americans and wildlife rely on," Dewey said.
Democrats on the committee put out a statement highlighting that, along with attacking wildlife, worsening the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency, and jeopardizing public health by favoring polluters, the GOP legislation would hike utility bills, promote environmental discrimination against rural and poor communities, and cut national park funding.
"With the release of the FY26 Interior bill, it's clear House Republicans are once again pushing an agenda that accelerates the climate crisis, upends our national parks system, and leaves local communities to fend for themselves—all while undermining the power of the Appropriations Committee and of Congress," said Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), ranking member on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
"We are still living with the fallout of last year's failure to negotiate a full-year funding bill. Instead of correcting course, the bill released today delivers more of the same: It cuts water infrastructure funding, slashes EPA programs, and wipes out environmental justice and climate initiatives. It even blocks the EPA from completing its risk assessment on PFAS in sewage sludge," she continued, referring to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called forever chemicals. "On top of the environmental attacks, Republicans are taking aim at the arts and cultural institutions that enrich communities and drive local economies."
Pingree asserted that "any arguments that these irresponsible cuts are somehow fiscally responsible ring hollow in the wake of Republicans adding $3.4 trillion to the national deficit thanks to their disastrous so-called 'One Big Beautiful Bill.' I urge my Republican colleagues to come to the table and support the essential work of this subcommittee: Protecting public health, conserving our lands and waters, investing in resilience, and ensuring that every community—from rural Maine to urban centers—has access to a healthy environment and a vibrant cultural life."
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) pointed out that President Donald Trump "promised to address the cost-of-living crisis, but instead, he and House Republicans are making it worse."
"House Republicans' 2026 Interior funding bill raises utility bills and energy prices to benefit billionaires and big corporations," DeLauro said. "Republicans are threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink and taking steps that damage our public lands, promote dirty energy, and hinder our ability to confront the climate crisis."
"In addition to these dangerous cuts, Republicans' proposal would mean fewer trips to national parks and less access to museums and the arts," she warned. "House Republicans are more focused on lining the pockets of big oil companies than lowering prices for working-class, middle-class, rural, and vulnerable families; protecting our public health; and preserving the planet."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Dems Denounce Trump Official for Hiding Social Security Service Metrics
"The agency's removal of comprehensive customer service data calls into question whether this administration seeks to hide from the public the negative customer service impacts of its staffing cuts," said reads a letter led by Rep. Judy Chu.
Jul 14, 2025
As the Trump administration pushes to cut 7,000 jobs held by federal employees at the Social Security Administration, the agency that oversees the crucial anti-poverty program for senior citizens and people with disabilities has made numerous efforts to disguise the customer service crisis that the cuts have caused—and Democrats on Monday demanded answers about what one progressive lawmaker recently denounced as a "cover up" to hide long wait times.
U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) led 18 Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee in writing to Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano, urging the former Wall Street executive to explain why several customer service metrics were deleted from the SSA's website just as Americans were facing longer wait times and a reduced ability to speak with customer service representatives rather than having their claims and questions handled through automation.
Chu spearheaded the letter weeks after the SSA stopped publishing more than 30 metrics related to the performance of its 1-800 number, retirement claims processing times, and disability decision reconsideration wait times.
"Early last month SSA abruptly removed that comprehensive menu of data from its website and replaced it with a new webpage that provides much more limited and sometimes misleading information on the agency's customer service performance," wrote the Democrats. "We are concerned that this new menu is far less helpful for our constituents in knowing what to expect when interacting with SSA."
In addition to omitting crucial information about how long retirees and people with disabilities can expect to wait to receive their benefits or to talk to a representative, Chu noted that the metrics that are currently shown "seem designed to pressure beneficiaries to use online tools instead of talking to live people, an option that simply doesn't work for all beneficiaries, especially the very old and people in rural areas with poor Internet access."
"The agency's removal of comprehensive customer service data calls into question whether this administration seeks to hide from the public the negative customer service impacts of its staffing cuts," reads the letter.
"Early last month SSA abruptly removed that comprehensive menu of data from its website and replaced it with a new webpage that provides much more limited and sometimes misleading information on the agency's customer service performance."
The letter was sent days after The Washington Post reported that the SSA is pulling staff from its field offices to act as customer service representatives for its 1-800 number following a surge in complaints about dropped calls and website crashes.
That change is likely to slow down responses to complicated claims cases that are often handled by field office staff, Jessica LaPointe, president of Council 220 of the American Federation of Government Employees, told the Post.
"So it's just going to create a vicious cycle of work not getting cleared, people calling for status on work that's sitting because the claims specialists now are going to have to pick up the slack of the customer service representatives that are redeployed to the teleservice centers," LaPointe said last week.
Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works, told the Post last month as the metrics were deleted from the SSA website that the Trump administration's attempts to conceal the effects of its mass layoffs would not succeed.
"People notice when they can't get an appointment because their local field office has lost half its staff. When checks and decisions are delayed. When they get the runaround from an AI chatbot on the phone, instead of getting to talk to a real person," said Lawson.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) criticized the agency for "playing musical chairs to try and fill in the gaps" and suggested Bisignano "stop gutting the critical workforce that helps Americans every single day."
Chu and the other Ways and Means Committee Democrats emphasized that the agency recently restored one metric to its new website: a chart showing the six-year trend of disability determination processing times.
"That the agency chose to cherry pick and restore only this metric," they wrote, "and not any of the others that had been removed, only deepens our concern about why your agency continues to keep hidden certain metrics that had previously been publicly available."
The Democrats demanded that the SSA restore "all the robust public data that the agency had previously reported prior to June 2025, including historical data, and to regularly update that data."
Keep ReadingShow Less
After Passage of GOP Medicaid Cuts, Congress Debates Nearly $1 Trillion Military Budget
In a closed-door session last week, senators advanced legislation that would authorize $925 billion in military spending for the coming fiscal year.
Jul 14, 2025
Fresh off the passage of a Republican budget measure that includes more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over the next decade, Congress this week is set to consider legislation that would authorize close to that same amount for the U.S. military for the coming fiscal year.
The House Armed Services Committee, controlled by Republicans, will mark up its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Tuesday. In a closed-door session late last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced its military spending authorization package, which has a topline of roughly $925 billion for Fiscal Year 2026—an increase of around $30 billion compared to the current fiscal year.
Unlike the GOP reconciliation package that President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this month, the NDAA is likely to clear Congress with bipartisan support. Just one Democrat on the Senate armed services panel—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—voted against advancing the legislation out of committee last week.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the NDAA "a critical, bipartisan measure that ensures our military remains prepared to meet the growing and complex challenges of a dangerous world."
The $925 billion Senate NDAA topline does not include the more than $150 billion Pentagon boost that Republicans inserted in their partisan reconciliation package for fiscal year 2025, pushing the nation's approved military spending above $1 trillion for the year. Trump has openly bragged about his push for a $1 trillion military budget.
"This militarized MAGA agenda harms working families and our communities," Lindsay Koshgarian and Hanna Homestead of the National Priorities Project said following passage of the GOP reconciliation bill. "It will be paid for with cuts to programs that help people meet their basic needs and will disproportionately benefit private contractors, further enrich billionaires, and exacerbate waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars."
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) asked Monday, "How do we always find money for war but never enough money for the children, the poor, and the hungry?"
Breaking Defense noted that the Senate NDAA proposes "an increase of Air Force F-35 procurement from 24 to 34 jets—a sum that, if enacted, would take the [Pentagon's] annual total to 57 jets." Watchdogs have long described the F-35 program as a ridiculous boondoggle.
Lawmakers are set to consider another increase in annual military spending following the release of a report estimating that more than half of the Pentagon's discretionary spending between 2020 and 2024 went to private contractors.
The report, released by the Costs of War Project and the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, notes that "the arms industry has used an array of tools of influence to create an atmosphere where a Pentagon budget that is $1 trillion per year is deemed 'not enough' by some members of Congress." Such tools include lobbying and sizable campaign contributions.
"The vast bulk of the arms industry's campaign contributions go to candidates for Congress," the report observes. "The industry favors incumbents, and concentrates much of its giving to members of the armed services committees and defense appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate—the members with the strongest role in shaping the Pentagon budget."
This story has been updated to include comment from Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular