Please welcome Cecile Richards.
-♪ ♪ -(cheering and applause)
-Welcome to the show. -Good to be here.
Uh, you have a lot of fans in the audience.
-A lot of, uh... -(cheering and applause)
-Thanks. -Uh, and I feel like...
I feel like you need fans in the...
-in these... -We'll take everyone we can get.
Yeah, in-in these tar... uh, dark times.
Let's get straight into it. I mean,
it feels like you cannot turn on the news these days,
-uh, especially after the Trump, uh, victory -Mm-hmm.
without seeing another story about how Paul Ryan
and the Republicans are planning to defund Planned Parenthood.
In fact, I hear that phrase so much,
it sounds like "Defund Planned Parenthood"
is the new name of the organization.
-Not a bit. -Like, "Welcome to Defund Planned Parenthood."
-Yeah. No. -That's-that's what... Are you tired?
No, no, no, not a bit. In fact, I'm energized.
I... It has been an outpouring of support
for Planned Parenthood ever since Paul Ryan said that.
In fact, I think you can't even get a phone call
into Speaker Ryan's office anymore, uh,
because of so many folks calling, concerned.
Um, and we saw, actually, after the election,
at Planned Parenthood, a flood of women calling.
We had a 900% increase in women,
in the first couple of days, trying to get appointments
-to get an IUD, because they were worried -Wow.
about losing their access to health care.
You-you see this on the ground.
And Planned Parenthood is providing vital services.
Um, but, at the same time,
it has become a contentious issue in America.
How do you... how do you balance that world,
between going, "We're a health care provider,"
whilst, at the same time, some people going,
"Yeah, but you're doing what we don't want you to do
for some people."
Actually, Planned Parenthood is more popular
than the entire United States Congress, and, so...
(applause and cheering)
So... and...
And I will say, I think if there were more members of Congress
who could get pregnant, we wouldn't
be arguing about birth control, uh...
-(applause and cheering) -And so...
I mean, the truth, Trevor, is
that one in five women in this country have been
to Planned Parenthood for healthcare.
We see about two-and-a-half million patients a year.
And what we've been hearing ever since Speaker Ryan said that
-is women and men coming out in droves... -Yeah.
...wanting to support the organization,
talk about the care that they got at Planned Parenthood.
We're gonna have thousands of folks, I think,
come to Washington.
In fact, there are so many people that wanted to come
and wear a pink Planned Parenthood hat,
literally, the factory ran out of pink yarn
that makes the pink Planned Parenthood hats.
-Wow. -So, we're seeing
really record amount of support in the country.
I guess you need that support
because now we're in a position
where we're witnessing the Republicans
with the majority they need to defund Planned Parenthood.
Um, what's interesting about the conversations
in and around this is
that Planned Parenthood provides so many more services
than just abortions.
Is this something that doesn't get through,
or is there a way to create a bit of separation,
or is it a conversation
that cannot really be negotiated?
Well, we're really proud at Planned Parenthood
to provide women all of their reproductive healthcare,
and we always will.
I think that what's really important
to understand is, under the last...
-During the last eight years, with President Obama... -Yeah.
...who was a huge supporter of women's health, uh,
and health care access, and we actually got
birth control covered for 55 million women
in this country at no co-pay, including probably
-some folks here in this audience. Um... -(cheering)
I actually... you know it's interesting,
we're at a 30-year low for unintended pregnancy in America,
we're at a historic low for teenage pregnancy in America,
and that's largely because women have better access
to family planning.
I would say the American people think that Planned Parenthood
is actually the solution, not the problem.
-(audience whooping) -Uh, and so... Yeah, thank you for that.
-Uh... but... -(laughter)
so I really do think that it is a matter of folks in Washington
understanding that women's need for health care,
it's not a partisan issue.
And that's what I think women are so perplexed about,
is why are people playing politics
with women's health care in America?
And, uh, the women who come to Planned Parenthood,
they're Republicans, they're Democrats,
they're Independents, because...
they're not coming to make a political statement,
they're coming because they need high-quality,
affordable health care and that's what we provide.
Let me... let me play devil's advocate
-for a little bit, then. -(cheering, applause)
Um...
you know, some of the arguments you hear people making are,
why should the government have to pay...
for a service that many people in America don't agree with?
Or why should there be any funding from government
that goes to an organization
that provides anything that they don't agree with?
-So could I answer? -Yeah, of course.
Uh, terrific. So, at first it's really important to understand
that Planned Parenthood is not a line item in the federal budget.
Right? We just get reimbursed,
like every other health care provider
for providing, uh, family planning services,
cancer screenings, Well-Woman visits,
STI testing and treatment.
And, in fact, federal funding, as you probably know,
-Yes. -does not pay for abortion services.
I think that's wrong. That's a law
that's been in effect for a long, long time.
But so when Paul Ryan says
we're going to defund Planned Parenthood,
what it means is, actually, that millions of folks who come to us
for preventive care can no longer come to us--
including thousands of women, actually,
in his home state of Wisconsin.
I actually think that
if you're concerned about preventing unintended pregnancy,
and the need for abortion in this country,
you should triple the funding for Planned Parenthood,
-because that's the work... -(cheering and applause)
that's the work we do.
That's-that's the work we do, and look,
I'll give you another example.
I mean, I come from the state of Texas
where the politicians have really run roughshod
over women's healthcare access.
And they-they shutdown dozens of women's healthcare centers.
We saw unintended pregnancy rates go up,
um, and we also saw a doubling
of the maternal mortality rate in Texas.
And particularly among low-income women
and women of color who had the least access to healthcare.
Those are a lot of the women that we see
at Planned Parenthood.
And so this is an issue of access to healthcare,
of a, you know, a wide swath of healthcare.
And for many folks we're their only healthcare provider.
And Paul Ryan is now saying we're gonna end that.
When-when-when the Republicans say
it's not about denying women healthcare,
it's about getting the money to places
where we feel it would be better suited,
so they say it'll go to community healthcare centers.
You know, that still means that there are many women
who won't have access to any form of healthcare at all.
Absolutely.
In fact, the community health centers have said
we can't see all these patients
that Planned Parenthood sees.
The Congressional Budget Office has said
this is gonna cost the taxpayers $130 million at a minimum
if you end women's ability to go to Planned Parenthood.
-Is that, it that just in the defunding of... ? -Mm-hmm, yeah.
-'Cause it'll actually cost money to... -Absolutely.
-to put it all together. -To try to replace it.
-Yes. -And then the other thing which I think
is an important part of all this,
is it's not only that Congress is saying
they're going to end women's ability
to go to Planned Parenthood-- and not just women,
we have a lot of men that come to us and-and young people.
Last night, in the dead of night,
-when we're all asleep, the... -At 1:30 a.m., yup.
Exactly. The United States Senate starts ramming though
a repeal of the Affordable Care Act,
which means 20 million people lose their health care coverage,
it means young people, uh,
that are 26 and-and younger
can no longer stay on their, uh, parent's health insurance plan.
It means people with pre-existing conditions,
uh, can't get, uh, health insurance anymore.
And Kirsten Gillibrand, the great senator
-from the state of New York, uh, w... -(scattered whoops)
Yeah, she's fabulous. I mean, she-she had the senate vote
last night on protecting women's health care access, uh,
and the Republican leadership defeated that as well.
So I think it's important to understand it's not only that
they want to end access to Planned Parenthood, they want
to end access to care for a lot of folks in this country.
Uh, and I believe it's going to cause a health care crisis.
We saw that it did in Texas, we've seen this happen
in other states. And so I hope that every person
who is watching this, if you've been a Planned Parent patient
or if you care about access to health care,
you need to call your member of congress, call your senator,
and-and call the Trump administration.
(cheering, applause)
I, uh, appreciate your time. I thank you for being here,
and so do many people in the audience.
-Thank you so much for coming. -Hey, thanks for having me.
-I really appreciate it. -Cecile Richards, everybody.