On Monday, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell hosted Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards for a friendly interview to help the nation’s largest abortion provider defend itself from recent criticism over the alleged sale of fetal body parts for profit.
Throughout the interview, the MSNBC host repeatedly stressed how four videos that showed Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of fetal body parts were “edited” and [t]aken out of context” and never truly questioned the practice done by the organization.
Mitchell’s need to remind her MSNBC audience that the Planned Parenthood videos were “edited” and “taken out of context” seems odd given that she herself has a history of using highly edited video to push her political agenda.
During the 2012 presidential campaign, the MSNBC host used an edited video of Mitt Romney mistakenly calling the convenience store chain Wawa “Wawa’s” to suggest the Republican was out of touch with average Americans.
Later in the interview, Mitchell gave Richards an opportunity to blast the organization that produced the videos as well as members of Congress who are seeking to defund Planned Parenthood. The MSNBC host then rushed to defend the company from allegations that they sell fetal tissue:
I want to get the facts out on the table because people were so disturbed by the videos, what they think they saw in videos that we've acknowledged were edited. These were doctors and others talking about reimbursements, not money that would come from selling. Is that what is correct?
Mitchell continued to fret about the efforts to defund Planned Parenthood as she sympathetically asked Richards “what about the future? What about what's going to happen in the appropriations process down the road when they come back after the recess and what’s going to happen on the House side?”
Rather than challenge Cecile Richards about her company's questionable practice of selling fetal body parts, Mitchell merely asked an open-ended question to her guest which allowed her to reject the videos' content:
We can talk about what the value of fetal tissue is in various diseases in terms of research. But can you understand how people looking at this would be concerned if people are drinking wine and chatting very casually about body parts at all of fetal tissue?
In fact, the MSNBC host went so far as to promote Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the fetal tissue business and offered its president an opportunity to explain the “value” of the company’s work:
Explain for our viewers what the value of fetal tissue is and, especially, as frankly, as testing becomes more and more illustrative of the fetus. I mean this whole issue even for people who support a woman’s right to choose is very distressing.
After Richards predictably stood by her company’s policy, Mitchell continued to accept the Planned Parenthood president’s instance that the company does not sell fetal tissue for profit:
So is it a direct link where Planned Parenthood, after an abortion procedure and after the agreement of the patient and/or family, you provide this fetal tissue to the medical research centers and get --And you are reimbursed for what costs?
Andrea Mitchell is known for her friendly interviews with Cecile Richards and she has repeatedly given the Planned Parenthood president a platform to promote her company’s activities. In July of 2013, the MSNBC host repeatedly spewed abortion friendly propaganda with Richards as she repeatedly asked “What can you or Planned Parenthood and other groups do to try to keep some of these clinics open?”
In January of 2014, the MSNBC host once again went to bat for Planned Parenthood as she asked Richards what her company “or other advocates can do for women’s rights and women’s rights to contraception?”
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports
August 3, 2015
ANDREA MITCHELL: Joining me now for an exclusive interview, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Obviously this has all been very disturbing. It was acknowledged that those videos were edited --
CECILE RICHARDS: Highly edited.
MITCHELL: Taken out of context. Were they doctors on the video
--MITCHELL: I want to get the facts out on the table because people were so disturbed by the videos, what they think they saw in videos that we've acknowledged were edited. These were doctors and others talking about reimbursements, not money that would come from selling. Is that what is correct?
RICHARDS: Absolutely a fact. Planned Parenthood operates like all other hospitals that do fetal tissue donations. There were no laws broken. We have the highest medical and ethical standards. I would emphasize these folks spent three years trying to entrap doctors and they were completely unsuccessful. And I do think it’s important to remember the group behind this, they are not a medical group. They're not about women's health care. They are completely focused on ending access to legal abortion in this country and they've been behind a ten-year campaign to end access to Planned Parenthood health care for women in America.
MITCHELL: We can talk about what the value of fetal tissue is in various diseases in terms of research. But can you understand how people looking at this would be concerned if people are drinking wine and chatting very casually about body parts at all of fetal tissue?
--
MITCHELL: But what about the future? What about what's going to happen in the appropriations process down the road when they come back after the recess and what’s going to happen on the House side?RICHARDS: Well, we're very proud to have a bipartisan group of senators supporting us today. Again, I think they've been hearing from these one in five women in this country who have been Planned Parenthood patients. I think we will be successful. And I think it's important that Congress recognize and our own research shows the American people trust Planned Parenthood. They want to be able continue to
go to Planned Parenthood for health care. And that if Congress continues to focus on this, they're not actually focusing on the business of the American people are concerned about.
MITCHELL: Explain for our viewers what the value of fetal tissue is and, especially, as frankly, as testing becomes more and more illustrative of the fetus. I mean this whole issue even for people who support a woman’s right to choose is very distressing.
--
MITCHELL: Is it illegal to sell the fetal tissue?
RICHARDS: It's absolutely illegal to make any profit and we do not. Planned Parenthood makes zero profit on any fetal tissue donations. There are companies that do this work that are not related to Planned Parenthood. I don't know enough about their own guidelines and what they operate under but for Planned Parenthood we are 100% non-profit. We make zero money from fetal tissue research.
MITCHELL: So is it a direct link where Planned Parenthood, after an abortion procedure and after the agreement of the patient and/or family, you provide this fetal tissue to the medical research centers and get --
RICHARDS: Or to whoever the middle person is or company that's actually works with directly with researchers.
MITCHELL: And you are reimbursed for what costs?
