The mainstream media continued to fawn over Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards this week, hailing her as a heroine for women and abortion.
On Tuesday, it was the Washington Post‘s turn to feature Richards, adding to an already long list of feel-good profiles about her this summer.
“The abortion rights movement is bolder than it’s been in years. That’s Cecile Richards’s plan,” the headline reads. Following it is another flattering article that portrays Richards as a bold, confident and determined advocate for abortion.
It does not mention that her salary alone is $590,982 every year, or that Planned Parenthood is responsible for aborting about 320,000 innocent unborn babies every year – more than any other group in the U.S. Nor does it mention that one of Richards’ top priorities, repealing the Hyde Amendment and forcing taxpayers to fund abortions, would be a huge financial benefit to Planned Parenthood.
Instead, it describes how Richards shed tears of joy when she learned that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas abortion clinic regulation law this summer – a law that saved thousands of babies’ lives and protected women by closing abortion facilities that could not or would not meet basic health and safety standards.
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Here’s how the liberal newspaper piece began:
On the morning of one of the most important days in her career, Cecile Richards waited anxiously in her office at Planned Parenthood headquarters in Manhattan, texting furiously with friends across the country.
A few minutes past 10 a.m., a message from her daughter flashed across the screen. A single word: Yay!
“That was when I knew we’d won,” Richards says, recalling the moment when she learned of the decision in the biggest abortion-related case to come before the Supreme Court in more than two decades. In a 5-to-3 vote, the justices had ruled that Texas’s restrictions on abortion clinics placed an “undue burden” on women seeking to end their pregnancies.
Seeing that text, the president of Planned Parenthood ran out of her office and joined her staff, gathered around television sets, clapping and crying, to revel in a moment of joy.
“It was a little bit unreal,” she recalls of the day’s emotions.
Later, the piece describes Richards this way:
In person, the 59-year-old Richards exudes both a warm authenticity and a subtle impenetrability; there’s the sense that she means everything she says, but she isn’t saying everything. Her public persona is almost preternaturally controlled; like the savviest politicians, she’s supremely polished, perpetually on-message and surrounded by a highly protective media operation that carefully controls reporters’ access and circles the wagons when uncomfortable situations arise.
Which, given her job, they frequently do. As the president of the country’s largest abortion provider, Richards is a lightning rod for conflicting passions. Polarizing? The word could have been invented for her. It’s a safe bet that how you view her depends on where you stand on abortion: She’s composed, heroic, a righteous defender of the vulnerable; or she’s cold, unfeeling, a cunning apologist for baby murderers.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the newspaper: “I think Cecile Richards has now become the puppetmaster for Democrats in Congress. There is no doubt that Cecile Richards wants to influence a President Clinton and control the Supreme Court.”
Perhaps the new piece hailing Richards’ leadership is not that surprising – it comes for a news outlet that may have hosted a joint fundraiser with the Democratic National Committee, according to a recent email leak.
Richards’ goal is clear: She wants to force Americans to both accept and pay for abortions for any reason through all nine months of pregnancy, and increase Planned Parenthood’s business. The on-going stories featuring Richards are a sign of just how complicit the mainstream media is in that goal.
