Juan Williams, Jennifer Granholm: Republican Obsession with Planned Parenthood Continues
For Immediate Release: Nov. 25, 2015
Washington, DC -- On Friday, we saw the House vote for the sixth time to defund Planned Parenthood or roll back access to safe and legal abortion since August. There are four committees in Congress investigating Planned Parenthood. And despite no evidence of wrongdoing, extreme politicians have also created a fifth “special committee” to launch yet another investigation. The Republican leadership's obsession with Planned Parenthood is clear -- and clearly outside the mainstream.
This was on full display during the Sunday talk shows. When Juan WIlliams was asked about whether Paul Ryan could unify the Republican party he said that he doesn’t “see a honeymoon coming,” but rather “another implosion” -- in part because of their obsession with Planned Parenthood.
Juan Williams: Look at the record here. So last week, he meets with the freedom caucus, gets the freedom caucus to go along, 2/3 of them, not the 80%. 2/3 of them said, yes, we'll support him. but what did they agree to? they didn't agree that they would not use the procedural measure to say we won't use the step to vacate the speaker seat. what did he say? he said i'm going to stick with the majority of republicans agree to anything he puts forward on the floor for a vote.
Chris Wallace: Let me explain. you're saying a majority of the majority before you'd even bring something up. you're not going to go in with 20 republicans and then count on democratic votes.
Juan Williams: Correct. What we have, then, is a basic agreement that we're going to operate on the basis of faith and trust in each other. But when you come to something like the debt ceiling, which is coming up very soon, how do you see the Freedom Caucus, which has defined itself as in opposition, defiant to Republican establishment leadership...Boehner, Mcconnell in the senate...How are they supposed to shift and say, oh, yeah, we're going to go along at raising the debt ceiling without talking about things like Planned Parenthood. We're going to talk about a budget. But it just doesn't make sense on that level. So i don't see a honeymoon coming. In fact, i see that we're pushing down the line to yet another implosion.
When Jennifer Granholm was asked on ABC’s This Week about Marco Rubio’s positions, she remarked about how extreme the GOP field was and how their positions on abortion and defunding Planned Parenthood weaken them as candidates.
Jennifer Granholm: I don't know if he's the toughest because he's one of the most extreme. for example, he doesn't agree with a woman's right to choose in even in the case of rape or incest. he doesn't believe in same-sex marriage, where most of the population believes we shouldn't be shutting down the government to defund planned parenthood. he's a new generation but with old ideas. if you're a new generation and you got ideas that are back in the '50s
On Meet the Press, Chuck Todd highlighted a NBC/WSJ poll of Independents that showed they believe that the GOP field is not in the mainstream when it comes to abortion. This is in line with the many polls that show the public supports the health care that Planned Parenthood provides, and is opposed to shutting down the government over it.
Todd: It's not hard to find Democrats who think Republicans are out of the mainstream or Republicans who think it's Democrats that are out of the mainstream of American opinion. So which party really is in the mainstream? In our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll we asked Americans which political party is in the mainstream on these six issues. Gay marriage, abortion, climate change, fiscal issues, immigration and guns. Not surprisingly, Democratic primary voters believe they're in the mainstream on all six of those issues from gay marriage down to guns and Republican primary voters believe they're in the mainstream in all six issues. somebody these be wrong here, right? Who do we go to figure this out: Independents. And there's good news if you're the Democrats. Among independents in our poll, they believe the Democratic party is in the mainstream on three of the six issues, gay marriage, abortion, and climate change.”
Despite the American public overwhelmingly supporting Planned Parenthood and access to safe and legal abortion, Republicans continue to do all they can to restrict access to essential reproductive care. They are out of touch.