Last weekend, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards appeared with Bill Moyers on the PBS program Moyers & Company. The longtime PBS omnipresence pestered Richards with the fact that the abortion opponents are winning, placing limits on abortion in many states.
But Richards really grew silly when Moyers asked about the Supreme Court “junking” the Massachusetts law putting a 35-foot buffer zone outside abortion clinics. She somehow compared women getting abortions to men seeking colonoscopies. Why on Earth would anyone protest men getting an intestinal polyp removed? How does that compare to a baby?
CECILE RICHARDS: Well, we're already seeing in Massachusetts that absolutely, immediately after that decision eliminating the buffer zone we had record numbers of protesters outside of the following women all the way up to the door of our health center in Massachusetts. These are not all kindly, elderly ladies simply whispering in the ears.
And even if they were, it is the right of women in this country to be able to access healthcare that they need without harassment and without the advice of dozens of people outside their health center. I mean, can you imagine if, you know, if men in this country, before going into their doctor had to walk through a gauntlet of protesters telling them, you know, whether it's not to get a colonoscopy or just go down the list? It's incredible.
No, it's a ridiculous comparison. Richards also claimed she doesn’t use the term “war on women,” although she never seems to object when MSNBC anchors throw it at her:
MOYERS: Is there a war on women? Or has that become a convenient metaphor?
RICHARDS: It's not a term I use. But in some ways, if the shoe fits, you know, I feel like I don't like to think there's a war on women. But the evidence is that there is certainly within some, certainly some elements of the Republican party, and unfortunately a lot of the leadership, and a lot of politicians in this country, folks who are uncomfortable, I believe, with women being equal in America.
