Why Carly Fiorina Has It All Wrong On Planned Parenthood

Lately, Republicans have been threatening to shut down the government again unless Planned Parenthood is defunded. Why, then, are conservatives so opposed to this program? You guessed it: one of the program’s roles is to help “prevent unintended pregnancies.” However, upon further investigation, one can easily decipher that Planned Parenthood’s main mission is to provide affordable sexual and reproductive health care. So, the program has a liberal view toward contraception, which is why this seems to be one topic that several GOP presidential candidates seem to be opposed to.                                                                                                                

At the GOP Presidential debate, candidate Carly Fiorina did not budge on her stance against Planned Parenthood, but it wasn’t abortion that she was combating.     

Fiorina was adamant in her claims during the debate that she would never support the program due to the revolting videos that that have surfaced showing “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.”

The Washington Post was not able to find such videos. The Post also points to many who have told Fiorina the same: these videos do not exist, and Planned Parenthood does not incur profit from the sale of fetus’ organs.

Yet Fiorina still stands by her claims. In fact, a week after the CNN Republican Primary Debate, her campaign released a video that includes clips from the notorious but untrue organ-harvesting videos to attempt to give her some credibility. If you haven’t seen this video yet, watch below (warning: graphic content).

In its entirety, Carly Fiorina’s argument is one-sided and fails to address Planned Parenthood’s role as a health care provider, seeing the organization only as a fetus-killer and nothing else. 

As the only female candidate at the September GOP debate, one might expect her to have clear views on abortion and contraception. But after the debate, many are still waiting to hear what these views are. Is she pro-choice? Does she believe that women should be able to have a say on whether or not they want to continue with an unintended pregnancy?  What would she do if it was her own body? 

With elections just over a year away, Carly Fiorina needs to decide if using faulty evidence will help win her the Republican nomination, and ultimately the presidency. 

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