Cecile Richards attemps to snooker Catholic voters

(Before we get any further, let's get the definition of "snooker" clear.)

Cecile Richards is the president of Planned Parenthood. Now that Obama is president-elect, her organization is set to profit handsomely from windfall pro-abortion initiatives. "We have been communicating with [Obama's] transition staff almost daily", Richards boasts. "We expect to see a real change."

Such words give me cause for alarm. Richards is already working, for instance, to get UNFPA re-funded by American dollars. This is an organization complicit in China's horrific, compulsory one-child policy, which remains a problem.

Today in the Huffington Post, Richards decides to add "rewriting history" to her resume:

"With all the post-election polling analysis, there are many interesting outcomes that merit some soul-searching -- and not just within the political parties.

Exit polls reveal that 54 percent of Catholic voters supported President-elect Barack Obama, despite entreaties from Catholic leadership to vote against Senator Obama because of his support for abortion rights."

Soul-searching? Please. As if Richards has ever reconsidered her passionate pursuit of abortion-on-demand, ever.

She certainly has shown no willingness to debate her positions in free public forums.

Next, I'm aware of no one who can seriously claim that Catholics voted for Obama slightly more than McCain because they preferred Obama's position on abortion to McCain's. How stupid must Richards think Catholics are to believe that? Poll after poll shows that Americans voted based on the economy, and a whole host of issues, with abortion far down on the list. And that's sad, because if they had given abortion more consideration, they would have reconsidered voting for Obama. As Steven Erthelt says, "the only plausible conclusion is that some Catholic voters backed Obama despite their disagreement with him on abortion."

Richard goes into full-boar snookering at this point:

"While this may come as a surprise to Catholic bishops who are meeting this week to discuss the election, it is consistent with what we know about the attitudes of Catholic voters.

In a poll commissioned by Planned Parenthood last year, Catholic voters were asked to name their largest concerns around the issues of abortion and family planning."

What do you know, Richards? The results of a self-commissioned poll asking people what they don't like about abortion? That's like Coca-Cola commissioning a poll to ask people "what three things do you most dislike about Pepsi?" Would anyone be surprised that they can think of something?

I'll wrap this up with one more observation. Richards says:

"At Planned Parenthood, we work to prevent unintended and teen pregnancy. We provide more than 2.4 million women each year with family planning services -- but nearly another 15 million go unserved due to lack of affordable access."

Come again? That's just rich. Richards is trying to somehow imply that Planned Parenthood is prevented from carrying out its mission of mercy because - wouldn't ya know it? - they just don't have enough money....

In fact, see: "Planned Parenthood's Obscene Profits":

"In April, the annual report for Planned Parenthood Federation of America revealed that the abortion giant had a total income of $1.02 billion -- with reported profits of nearly $115 million. Taxpayers kick in more than $336 million worth of government grants and contracts at both the state and federal levels. That's a third of Planned Parenthood's budget."

Forgive me if I hold back the tears. Evidently in this underdeveloped economic corner of the healthcare market, despite desiring so sincerely to serve more marginalized individuals, Planned Parenthood has still managed to make huge profits, with taxpayers eventually footing a third of the bill.

The hubris and deceptiveness required to pen an editorial like this really takes my breath away. But as you can see, demolishing Richards' arguments takes only about as much effort as blowing down a house of cards.

P.S. That goes for you, too, Vanessa.

[photo credit: Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood]