Liberal, pro-abortion journalist Katie Couric on Tuesday interviewed the President of Planned Parenthood and worried about how “tough” pro-life supporters were making things for the organization. Couric snidely noted, “While Planned Parenthood says that abortions account for just three percent of its clinical work, opponents won't be happy until that number is zero.”
(Couric did not point out that the organization makes the vast majority of its money from abortions.) Talking to President Cecile Richards, the journalist, who now interviews people for Yahoo, fretted, “The videos inflamed already passionate critics, making it harder than ever for the organization to do its job. How tough is it to find clinicians who are willing to work at Planned Parenthood clinics and what kinds of challenges do they face?”
Speaking of scandal related to undercover videos, Couric gently questioned:
KATIE COURIC: Planned Parenthood has always had its opponents, but the videos created outrage in the anti-abortion community and galvanized conservative members of Congress. The result? The real possibility of cutting taxpayer dollars that go to Planned Parenthood. Eliminating 41 percent of its 1.3 billion annual budget. What would defunding Planned Parenthood have done to this organization?
The journalist should be commended for at least asking a few tough questions. She referred to Planned Parenthood as “controversial” and pressed about the hidden footage: “Did they, even if they were edited in your view, expose a side of Planned Parenthood that needed exposing?”
But, overall, the interview tilted towards sympathy for Richards. That shouldn’t be surprising as Couric in 2008 won an award from the pro-abortion National Organization for Women. Life News recounted how Couric’s pro-abortion lobbying accidentally was exposed on television:
The CBS News anchor had been able to keep her abortion advocacy a secret until actress Whoopi Goldberg accidentally exposed her in a September 1997 interview.
Goldberg embarrassed Couric by mentioning the then-NBC host’s participation in a pro-abortion march.
During the interview, Couric asked about Goldberg’s book and why she would write on the topic of "choice" – meaning abortion.
"Well because, you know, when you get out there and you march, because we’ve marched together," Goldberg said.
Couric, feigning ignorance, and retorted, "Nooo. I’m not allowed to do that."
Goldberg, playing along, with tongue firmly implanted in cheek as she stared upward, "Oh, no that’s right. We have not marched together. It was somebody that looked like you."
A transcript of Couric’s November 10 questions to Richards can be found below:
KATIE COURIC: Are you concerned that anti-abortion activists are winning the campaign for the hearts and minds of everyday Americans?
...
COURIC: 99 years ago, Margaret Sanger founded an organization we now know as Planned Parenthood. “No woman con call herself free who does not own and control her own body,” she once said. But today, nearly a century later, the mission is as controversial as ever.
[Montage of news reports about Planned Parenthood undercover video scandal.]
COURIC: At the center of this whole storm in recent months are those videos, which even some abortion-rights activists felt uncomfortable about.
DEBORAH NUCATOLA: Like I said, always as many intact livers as possible. People just want — Some people want lower extremities too, which that’s simple. That’s easy.
DR. ANNA DERMISH: Extremities first, the lower extremities and then go for the spine and sort of bring it down that way.
COURIC: Did they, even if they were edited in your view, expose a side of Planned Parenthood that needed exposing?
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CECILE RICHARDS: Not at all.
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COURIC: Even if those videos were, in fact, edited, you did change or at least suspend or alter your policy of fetal tissue research. Why?
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COURIC: What did that reimbursement go towards?
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COURIC: For lay people, including me, what is the value of fetal tissue research and do you wish that institutions that conduct it would be more outspoken about advocating this kind of research?
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COURIC: Planned Parenthood has always had its opponents, but the videos created outrage in the anti-abortion community and galvanized conservative members of Congress. The result? The real possibility of cutting taxpayer dollars that go to Planned Parenthood, eliminating 41 percent of its 1.3 billion annual budget. What would defunding Planned Parenthood have done to this organization?
...
COURIC: I imagine opponents would say, “Well, they should go someplace else to get those services. They don’t have to go to Planned Parenthood.”
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5:41COURIC: While Planned Parenthood says that abortions account for just three percent of its clinical work, opponents won’t be happy until that number is zero. The videos inflamed already passionate critics, making it harder than ever for the organization to do its job. How tough is it to find clinicians who are willing to work at Planned Parenthood clinics and what kinds of challenges do they face?
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COURIC: Do many doctors get death threats and have you got death threats?
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COURIC: Shout Your Abortion was a campaign that was launched to bring abortion out of the closet, if you will. But the blowback was swift and severe. Do you wish more women would come forward and talk about their experience?
...COURIC: What would you say to someone who feels with all her heart or all his heart that life begins at conception and that abortion is tantamount to murder.
