Planned Parenthood President Puts Strength and Sincerity into Her Pep-Talk
How Cecile Richards Riled Up Hillary Supporters
CONCORD, NH — The Hillary Headquarters is a humble, white building with homemade propaganda, and chewy granola bars for its guests. Inside the headquarters, on a cold Sunday morning, a cardboard box was placed in the front of the main room for the guest of honor to stand on. The day’s guest of honor was predicted to show up in high heels, so to prevent a sinking heel catastrophe — a piece of wood was placed over the cardboard box. The high heeled guest of honor serves as the current President of Planned Parenthood, named Cecile Richards. Richards came to the HQ to get a room of Hillary supporters excited to go out and canvas for the campaign. There is no one better to encourage and support then a woman who lives her life dedicated to supporting the Planned Parenthood organization.
It is without a doubt that Planned Parenthood experiences an innumerable amount of hatred and hostility. While 97% of the work they do is not related to abortion — and includes sexual and reproductive health care and education — this 3% attracts animosity and spite like no other. The right wing conservatives are known for bashing on Planned Parenthood. Debate after debate, Republicans fight over who can insult Planned Parenthood the most, constantly reminding the crowd how they plan to defund the organization. Parenthood experienced added criticism after videos released over the summer showed employees discussing human organ harvesting and fetal body part trading. The videos were extremely graphic and increased anti-abortion support. Recent investigations have discovered that the videos were fake, and Planned Parenthood is sueing in response. For a company to undergo such animosity, it is no surprise that their president is resilient and unwavering. When discussing the time she recently spent testifying before congress she laughed, “They said it was a hearing but it didn’t seem like anyone was there to be hearing anything.”
For the entire time Richards spoke to the crowd of Hillary supporters her tone was fierce, without the slightest waver of doubt. Her dress may have been pink and patterned, but she meant business. She explained to the group of supporters why Planned Parenthood decided to endorse Hillary, marking the group’s first favoring of a primary candidate in its 100-year history.
While multiple candidates support women’s rights, Richards explained, “There is one person that stood head and shoulders above everyone else, in terms of not only voting with us and not only giving good statements, but literally fighting every single day of her life for women and families and that’s Hillary Clinton.” Richards continued by discussing Clinton’s history of supporting women: “she introduced eight separate bills to advance reproductive health care, that’s eight more than anybody else running for president this year!” Richards even followed this statement with a comedic “ok?” to the crowd. She continued by discussing how Hillary worked hard to get the morning after pill to be an over the counter drug, and is far from a “friend of the moment.” Richards made a point of emphasizing Hillary’s well-established loyalty to women’s rights. She made her speech particularly relevant to the crowd of canvassers by talking about the importance of face to face conversation. “Now it all comes down to all of us,” Richards cheered with her hands in the air. The Planned Parenthood president poured strength and intensity into her speech so that no canvasser could leave the warm and cozy HQ room and enter the cold, New Hampshire air without motivation and a desire to elect Hillary Clinton.
Richards said it herself: “I look at what the stakes are and this is one we cannot, cannot afford to get wrong.”
