Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said during Tuesday’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing that she’s “never heard” of a circumstance at her organization in which a child has survived a botched abortion attempt.
Richards’ response came after Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis asked her if a child should be “given nourishment and medical care” if he or she “survives an abortion attempt.”
“I’ve never heard of such a circumstance happening,” she said, sparking brief silence in the room. “I can say at Planned Parenthood, I am aware of no instance … we don’t provide abortions after viability.”
Richards continued, “In my experience at Planned Parenthood, we haven’t ever had that kind of circumstance.”
She was then asked more generally if she would say that medical care would be in order if such a situation unfolded.
“I want to be responsible for Planned Parenthood and what we do there,” Richards said. “Certainly in that situation — which again has never occurred that I know of — a baby born … that baby should, as the mother should, get appropriate medical care from the physician. And would.”
Watch her remarks below:
Abortion survivors have consistently spoken out against Planned Parenthood, with two of them appealing to Congress earlier this month to defund the group.
In a recently released video from the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group, Holly O’Donnell, a former blood and tissue procurement technician, described how she once saw the heart of a baby still beating after an abortion at a clinic.
“Since the fetus was so intact [my coworker] said, ‘This is a really good fetus, and it looks like we can procure a lot from it. We’re going to procure brain,’” O’Donnell said. “She takes the scissors and she makes a small incision …  and goes, I would say to maybe a little bit through the mouth, and she was like, ‘OK, can you go the rest of the way?’”
(H/T: MRCtv)