Elizabeth Warren Defends Planned Parenthood As Senate Votes On Bill To Defund The Women's Health Organization

Sen. Elizabeth Warren Defended Planned Parenthood As Senate Voted To Defund The Organization. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) defended Planned Parenthood August 3 as the Senate convened to vote on a bill seeking to defund the women's health organization. According to Mother Jones, Warren said:

“Do you have any idea what year it is?” Warren asked. “Did you fall down, hit your head, and think you woke up in the 1950's or the 1890's? Should we call for a doctor? Because I simply cannot believe that in the year 2015, the United States Senate would be spending its time trying to defund women's health care centers. You know, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. The Republicans have had a plan for years to strip away women's rights to make choices over our own bodies. Just look at the recent facts.” [Mother Jones, 8/3/15]

Joe Scarborough Attacks Sen. Warren For Defending Planned Parenthood

Scarborough Chides Sen. Warren For Defending Planned Parenthood, “Nice Try Elizabeth.” During the August 4 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough attacked Sen. Warren for defending Planned Parenthood, accusing her of “conflating the right to choose with Planned Parenthood,” and claiming she used a red herring to defend the organization:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: More videos are coming out and they will be worse. And for Elizabeth Warren to try to conflate the right of a woman to choose with the horrors and the callousness and the grotesqueness of what was discussed over lunch is really unfortunate. You know, Elizabeth Warren talking about the 1950s and the 1890s, she can talk about it all she wants. There is a great quote. I don't know the source but it goes something like 'just because we are not shocked by what shocked our grandmothers does not mean we are more advanced than our grandmothers.' MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Okay. But with, you know, just to be clear here, she's talking about the issue of defunding Planned Parenthood and its services. She's not talking about what's going on in these videos. [...] SCARBOROUGH: Nice try Elizabeth, nice try Elizabeth Warren. Nice try. It's only going to get worse for Planned Parenthood. I agree with Hillary Clinton. There are troubling things on those tapes. And everybody needs to open their eyes and see that instead of reflexively talking about right wing attacks on a woman's right to choose. Please stop insulting our intelligence, Elizabeth Warren. Stop. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 8/4/15]

Scarborough Minimizes The Role Planned Parenthood Plays In Providing Women's Health Services. Scarborough attacked Planned Parenthood arguing that the organization “is not synonymous with women's health,” and that “you can be against the funding of Planned Parenthood without being against the support of women's health care” :

SCARBOROUGH: It's going to be very interesting to see how many Americans really believe that their tax dollars should go to fund this organization. Planned Parenthood is not synonymous with women's health. You can have women's health or you can have an organization that takes care of women's health without having the number one abortion provider who speaks so callously over lunch about the harvesting of unborn children. MIKA: The story is going to get a lot bigger. SCARBOROUGH: I'm just saying, conflating the right to choose with Planned Parenthood, conflating taxpayer dollars going to Planned Parenthood with protecting women's health, that's just a red herring. It has been set up that way so you can't have this discussion without being against women's health. But you can be against the funding of planned parenthood without being against the support of women's health care. [MSNBC, Morning Joe, 8/4/15]

The Videos Scarborough Cites Are Deceptively Edited And Misleading

The Videos Are Full Of Deceptive Edits Aimed At Smearing Planned Parenthood. The videos released by Center for Medical Progress have been highly edited in an effort to smear Planned Parenthood. The full, unedited versions of the videos show that Planned Parenthood has done nothing illegal and participates in consensual, legal tissue donation for medical research. [Media Matters, 7/14/15, 7/21/15, 7/28/15, 7/30/15]

FactCheck.org Debunked The First Deceptively Edited Video. In a July 21 post, Factcheck.org demolished the credibility of the first video released by Center for Medical Progress noting that the video's claim that Planned Parenthood was “selling aborted baby parts” was inaccurate and unfounded. [Factcheck.org, 7/21/15]

Investigations In Two States Have Cleared Planned Parenthood Of Any Wrongdoing. An investigation by the Indiana State Department of Health found no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood clinics in the state and “no evidence of any laws being broken.” Similarly, the Massachusetts Attorney General announced that they had also “found no evidence” of wrongdoing and noted that the health centers “are fully compliant with state and federal laws.” [Media Matters, 7/31/15]

Planned Parenthood Provides Essential Health Care Services For Women