Rep. Gerry Connolly evokes War on Women in Planned Parenthood hearing
Rep. Gerry Connolly was exasperated about his Republican colleagues. He was upset about the treatment of Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards as well as his Republican colleagues’ ideological hypocrisy.
“I wish your mom was here today,” Rep. Connolly said to Ms. Richards. “She would be handing out Texas boots to a lot of my colleagues.” He was referring to Cecile Richards tough as nails mother, the former governor of Texas, Ann Richards. Ms. Richards replied that her mother was there in spirit.
“You know I hope every American woman is watching today’s hearing,” Connolly said. “Because just the visuals as well as the audios tell you a lot. My colleagues like to say ‘There is no war on women.’ Look at how you have been treated as a witness. Intimidation, talking over, interrupting, cutting off sentences, criticizing you because of your salary. How dear you. Who do you think you are. Making a professional salary as a head of a premiere national organization and daring to actually make decisions as the head of that organization. … The disrespect, the misogyny rampant here today tell us what is really going on here. This isn’t about some bogus video, the author of whom doesn’t have the courage to appear here nor would the majority call him. Because they know he would make a bad witness under oath. This is about a conservative philosophy that says we are constitutionalists. … We believe in rugged individualism with one big carve out though. There is an asterisk in that assertion. And that is except when it comes to women controlling their own bodies and making their own health decisions. You would never know that the constitution according to the Supreme Court guarantees a right of choice. Hopefully, apparently we’re going to erode that choice and that right by using insinuation and slander and half-truths to besmirch a superior organization whose primary mission is to provide health services both to men and women but primarily women.”
Connolly then pointed out that if Republicans were really interested in funding healthcare, they would have accepted the Medicaid expansion to Obamacare. Cecile Richards agreed.
The congressman then gave Ms. Richards some time to detail the actual services provided by Planned Parenthood. It dispelled the caricature the Republicans were trying to paint.