MSNBC's Bashir Again Complains GOP Push to Defund Planned Parenthood Is 'War on Women'

Ken Shepherd
January 6th, 2012 6:00 PM
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"The GOP loves a good bogeyman," MSNBC's Martin Bashir complained as he opened a January 6 interview segment on his eponymous program with Cecile Richards, head of the GOP's "favorite target this election cycle," Planned Parenthood.

Bashir proceeded to paint the GOP presidential field, particularly "grenadier Newt Gingrich" as marshaling the forces of misogyny in a "War on Women," as the segment was titled onscreen. The interview amounted to a series of softball questions and leftist talking points to kick start Richards's own recital of left-wing talking points (MP3 audio here):

 

  • We know that Planned Parenthood provides essential gynecological services to women. So how do you react when virtually every single Republican candidate chasing the nomination takes the opportunity to attack your organization, indeed, wish that it didn't exist?
  • One of the big buzz words from the GOP this year, as you know, is a Personhood Amendment which wouldn't just ban a woman's right to choice, it would effectively ban birth control and in vitro fertilization. It was so controversial, Mississippi voted it down this year. So, the majority of voters in Mississippi would appear to be too liberal for the GOP candidates!
  • You're in New Hampshire now, and as you know, New Hampshire is the site of the next GOP contest. But your organization has been in a funding fight in that state, I believe, since the middle of last year. How effective has the fight against Planned Parenthood funding been, do you think?
  • Just a final question, one of the things that I still can't understand is the hatred and opposition for an organization that spends 97 percent of its total assets, total resources and facilities on basic standard health care for women and three percent, three percent on this, you know, contentious issue of abortion.

Bashir, of course, failed to bring on a pro-life activist to challenge the party line that Bashir and Richards tag-teamed to whip up pro-choice partisans in the audience.

For example, Kristi Burton Brown of LifeNews.com would strongly disagree with Bashir and Richards's 3-percent figure, arguing that when you do the math, it's more like 16 percent of Planned Parenthood resources devoted to the destruction of unborn life.

Leaving aside the controversy over the numbers, who in their right mind would go to a restaurant that poisoned 3 out of every 100 diners, much less 16 out of every 100?

Related Post: "MSNBC's Bashir: 'Misogynist GOP' Wants to 'Let Women Die'" (October 13, 2011)