{"id":172902,"date":"2017-10-14T11:21:21","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T15:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=172902"},"modified":"2017-10-14T02:29:02","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T06:29:02","slug":"planned-parenthood-prez-political-organizer-not-health-care-expert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/planned-parenthood-prez-political-organizer-not-health-care-expert\/","title":{"rendered":"Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards is a political organizer, not a health care expert"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Planned Parenthood wants the public to think of it as a “health care organization.” Planned Parenthood president and CEO Cecile Richards and the Planned Parenthood PR machine have worked very hard to convince the public that they’re not political… they’re just about women’s health.<\/p>\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n

Planned Parenthood<\/a> continues to bemoan the closing of several of its own centers by its own choice (they’re still fully funded, after all, receiving half a billion in taxpayer dollars annually), while falsely claiming poor women would have no health care options without their services. Thousands of federally qualified health care centers<\/a>\u00a0could be receiving those funds. Instead, the highly political Planned Parenthood is using those funds in an attempt to organize a\u00a0political army<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cecile Richards doesn’t have a health care background. She was chosen for the role of president of Planned Parenthood because of her skill as a political organizer. A look at her activism as a political cheerleader for Democratic Party causes reveals how the nation’s largest single abortion provider is far more interested in advancing an abortion<\/a> agenda than in anything else.<\/p>\n

Once an activist, always an activist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cecile Richards began her political activism at a very young age. As the daughter of the late Ann Richards, former Democratic Governor of Texas, Cecile Richards was raised in progressive left-wing politics and she is very comfortable in the political sphere.<\/p>\n

According a 2012 report<\/a> in the Dallas Morning News (DMN), “Richards… has been a hell-raiser since high school: a student protester in her teens…. Cecile was sent home from junior high school for wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War.”<\/p>\n

Richards was even on the scene in the days of the Roe v. Wade<\/em> decision, which forced legalization of abortion on the nation, says the DMN:<\/p>\n

Not quite 15 years old, Cecile joined her mother to campaign for a young Austin lawyer, Sarah Weddington, who was running for state representative in 1972…<\/p>\n

In January 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark opinion in\u00a0Roe vs. Wade<\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>the\u00a0<\/em>case that legalized abortion. Weddington was the attorney who successfully argued the case before the high court. And Ann Richards [Cecile’s mother] became her legislative office manager at the state Capitol.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 1980, Richards graduated from Brown University with a bachelor\u2019s degree in\u00a0history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She told<\/a> a reporter at the New Yorker,\u00a0\u201cI missed my graduation, because I was protesting against nuclear power\u2014or maybe it was against apartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Organizing” is the family business<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Kirk Adams and Cecile Richards (image credit: Jill Stanek Blog)<\/p><\/div>\n

According to the New Yorker<\/a>,<\/a> Richards “went to work as a labor organizer, first with garment workers in the Rio Grande Valley and then with hotel workers in New Orleans, where she met her future husband, Kirk Adams, who is now an official with the Service Employees International Union [SEIU]. They have three children. Lily, the oldest, is the press secretary for Tim Kaine, the Democratic senator from Virginia.”<\/p>\n

Since that report, Richards’ daughter Lily Adams<\/a>\u00a0has gotten a new job… as Communications Director to former California Attorney General Kamala Harris — now a U.S. Senator. Yes, THAT Kamala Harris — the one that Planned Parenthood\u00a0donated<\/a> to, and the one that, as AG of California<\/a>, brought\u00a0criminal charges<\/a> against Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden, who used undercover video to expose Planned Parenthood’s gruesome part in trafficking fetal body parts.<\/p>\n

According to e-mails obtained by the Washington Times, “Officials from\u00a0California Attorney General\u00a0<\/a>Kamala Harris’<\/a>\u00a0office and\u00a0Planned Parenthood<\/a>\u00a0collaborated to draft legislation targeting the pro-life activist [Daleiden] whose undercover videos showed officials for the nation\u2019s largest abortion provider discussing the sale of fetal body parts, emails show.”<\/p>\n

Although Kirk Adams left<\/a> his position at the SEIU in 2015, the SEIU<\/a> has been a long-time political ally of Planned Parenthood, partnering<\/a> with the abortion corporation to elect pro-abortion candidates to office.<\/p>\n

According to public tax reports, Planned Parenthood paid the SEIU<\/a>-CC LLC, more than $1 million in 2012<\/a> and\u00a0$816,847 in 2011<\/a>\u00a0for telemarketing services.<\/p>\n

Not to worry — there is no conflict of interest to see<\/a> here; move along.<\/p>\n

Not such strange bedfellows after all<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dallas Morning News interestingly described the Adams and Richards as pledging themselves to “the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.”<\/p>\n

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Cecile Richards founder Texas Freedom Network (image credit: screen shot KLRU video)<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1995, Cecile Richards founded the Texas Freedom Network, doing so because she was “alarmed about what she saw as the religious right\u2019s takeover of the State Board of Education, an elected body that adopts curriculum guidelines and textbooks for public schools.” Apparently, Richards was opposed to creationism being taught in schools along with evolution, calling it “bad science.” (Seems ironic, given that Planned Parenthood is so opposed to the science about human life, but I digress.)<\/p>\n

According to the Austin-based organization’s mission, the Texas Freedom Network<\/a> acts “as the state\u2019s watchdog for monitoring far-right issues, organizations, money and leaders.”<\/p>\n

In addition, “[t]he TFN Education Fund\u2019s\u00a0Texas Rising<\/a>\u00a0program also trains emerging grassroots leaders and activists on university and college campuses across the state.”<\/p>\n

TFN supports legalized abortion, organizing\u00a0summits<\/a> to raise up young people to push abortion rights in the state.\u00a0These events<\/a>\u00a0appear very similar to events Planned Parenthood is holding across the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n