Cecile Richards, former President of Planned Parenthood, and Ilyse Hogue, head of the abortion advocacy group NARAL, both had harsh words for President Trump Wednesday over his comments that MS-13 “aren’t people. These are animals.”
Trump's remarks were widely taken by many in the media to be referring to all illegal immigrants. While Richards, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood all seemed to be interpreting the remarks to mean all illegal immigrants, the full context of the remarks seems to show that the president was referring to the violent MS-13 gang.
Richards, the recently retired head of the nation’s largest abortion provider, called on the president to do some “serious self-reflection.”
This moment calls for the President to do serious self-reflection. https://t.co/5Y2MaQReUI
— Cecile Richards (@CecileRichards) May 17, 2018
Planned Parenthood, the organization that performed 321,384 abortions over this past year according to their latest annual report, denounced Trump's remarks as "hateful."
Immigrants are people. They are our neighbors, our friends, and members of the Planned Parenthood family.
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) May 16, 2018
One hateful man will never, ever speak for all of us. https://t.co/RqoinX3GbW
NARAL denounced the “dehumanizing, racist rhetoric.” The abortion advocacy group’s head, Ilyse Hogue, claimed the remarks put the country in “extremely dangerous territory.”
WOW. ??
— NARAL (@NARAL) May 17, 2018
Immigrants are human beings and vital members of our communities who deserve dignity and respect - not dehumanizing, racist rhetoric. https://t.co/NUi8tShrFU
We are in extremely dangerous territory and we know where this ends unless we resist with every fiber of our being. And believe me, if you think you are safe be you are not an immigrant, you could not be more wrong. https://t.co/K6mOirlr0Y
— ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) May 16, 2018
While these abortion leaders are clear on the humanity of MS-13 gang members, they are a little hazy on when that humanity begins.
Cecile Richards claimed once in an interview that the question of when life begins is not “relevant to the conversation” of abortion but, when pressed, said that “for her” life began at delivery.
“For you, when does life start? When does a human being become a human being?” she was asked by Jorge Ramos.
“I'm the mother of three children,” she told him. “For me, life began when I delivered them.”
Ilyse Hogue argued in an op-ed for CNBC that the conversation about when life begins “belongs with our scientists, our clergy, and our families,” and also claimed that life beginning at conception “goes against legal precedent, science, and public opinion.” Hogue did not venture her own opinion of when life begins.
Some on Twitter called out the irony of abortion groups denouncing "dehumanizing" rhetoric.
Okay Democrats, if you’re that upset about people dehumanizing Hamas and MS-13, imagine they’re 19-week-old babies in the womb.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 17, 2018