Jordan to Planned Parenthood president: If videos were edited, why did you apologize?

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) today questioned Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc. President Cecile Richards in a congressional hearing about undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood leaders haggling over the prices of organs and other tissue from aborted babies, and admitting to altering abortion practices at risk of harm to the mother.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing was titled "Planned Parenthood's Taxpayer Funding."

During the hearing, Rep. Jordan made the following comments during his opening remarks:

"Here's the troubling truth: a picture is worth a thousand words. You can say all you want that these things were heavily edited, they were changed, but if that's the case why did Ms. Richards apologize for the videos two days after they first surfaced? Everyone knows these videos are, as the Speaker of the House said, ‘barbaric and repulsive.'

"This argument that we keep hearing from the other side, Republicans want to shut down the government, are you kidding me? We want to fund the government at the levels everyone agreed to – the Ryan Murray budget, the levels the Democrats agreed to, the levels the President agreed to – we simply want to shift the money from an organization caught doing what they were caught doing and give it to the community health centers. Shift it from the 700 Planned Parenthood clinics and give it to the 13,000 federally approved community health centers. Take the money from the guys doing the bad things and give it to the ones who aren't. Take the dollars from one private company doing what the Speaker said – ‘barbaric' things – and give it to federally approved community health centers.

"Now, if the Democrats insist that in spite of all that, this organization should still get your tax dollars and that that somehow is more important than funding our troops, our veterans, and, frankly, women's health issues and some of the things the chairman talked about in health care – if that's their position, then they can go and defend that position. So, let's just be honest here. What this is really all about, plain and simple: money and politics."

VIDEO of Rep. Jordan's opening remarks: https://youtu.be/As-s2he0Rxc

VIDEO of Rep. Jordan's first Q/A with Cecile Richards: https://youtu.be/NFc8SfsuY60

PHOTO of Rep. Jordan during today's hearing: https://flic.kr/p/zcGaTd

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