According to a People.com article published on Tuesday, Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s resident head honcho, has written in her new book that the first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, sought out a meeting with Richards early in 2017. In that meeting, they allegedly offered the abortion giant increased federal funding if it would stop performing abortions.



Meeting with Jared and Ivanka was of interest to Richards at first: “[Richards] was leery of taking the meeting in January 2017, but, after the defeat of Planned Parenthood’s champion, Hillary Clinton, she was open to finding possible new allies in the president-elect’s more moderate-leaning daughter and son-in-law.” But apparently, once Kushner had laid out his surprising proposal, Richards shut him down fast: “Richards explained that there was “no way” Kushner’s proposal would work and that they’d continue to fight for funding.”

Richards also later described the incident as resembling a “bribe” and that the reason the couple did it was to “confirm their reputation as savvy dealmakers.” I can see why Richards says it was like a “bribe” (though it was a righteous bribe, at least), but how did Richards know the meeting was meant to serve Ivanka and Jared’s reputations? Is Richards a mind-reader?

Supporters of Planned Parenthood swear up and down that the organization is not an abortion mill, but that it provides a wide spectrum of vital and cheap medical care to vulnerable women.

But the “abortion is only 3% of what we do” line from Planned Parenthood is simply false.

Abortion is what they do. And never mind that almost 100% of the time, abortion is not necessary medical care. If a pregnant woman actually needs an abortion to continue living (assuming she’s in distress, having an ectopic pregnancy, or other life-threatening pregnancy complication), you know where she’s going to go? The hospital. Not Planned Parenthood.

Hard truth for die-hard Planned Parenthood supporters: Planned Parenthood does not have the corner on medical care. Not even close.

Now, I have to say, this story is very surprising to me as an observer of the Trump administration. Trump himself doesn’t have a super long or strong history as a pro-lifer (though he has helped us quite a bit by appointing Gorsuch, publicly acknowledging the pro-life cause, and more). Ivanka and Jared’s feelings about abortion have, likewise, been historically hard to discern.

All the same, kudos to Jared and Ivanka for trying to steer the wayward medical organization down a path that could actually make it a force for good. If, excepting abortions, Planned Parenthood did everything they claim to do for lower costs on behalf of low-income women, it would, indeed, be a virtuous organization.

But, of course, Cecile Richards wasn’t having any of that.

“[M]aybe I shouldn’t have just shut down the conversation, but I did what I thought was best,” Richards writes in her new book.

The fact that Richards wasn’t even willing to momentarily consider Jared’s vision of Planned Parenthood sans abortion demonstrates that one of the core purposes of the organization is abortion.

Remember that the next time someone tells you Planned Parenthood isn’t mainly in business for the abortion.