North Carolina GOP Senate candidate and OBGYN Greg Brannon believes that Planned Parenthood wants to legalize infanticide.
As Tim Murphy at Mother Jones reports, the Republican frontrunner shared his theory at a November fundraiser for a chain of crisis pregnancy centers in his state:
Well how far will [it] go? Last year, February 29, 2012, the Journal of Ethics in Australia, they debated that. They said we already know abortion is fine, why stop in the womb? Why not three months after. Why should we end the responsibility at that point? It could happen in America. Florida's trying to do it right now and so is Georgia. Planned Parenthood. Because we allowed that slippery slope. Every human being deserves life, liberty, and property.
Brannon, it seems, is referring to an incident last year when a representative from the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates was questioned at a committee hearing about how a Planned Parenthood physician would respond to “a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion." She replied that politicians should not legislate protocol in medical emergencies, and that, "We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician."
The response was a slightly confused attempt to redirect a politically-motivated question, but the anti-choice movement jumped on it and accused the organization of "infanticide." As a result, Planned Parenthood further clarified its position later in the same hearing. "As a trusted health care provider, Planned Parenthood strongly condemns any physician who does not follow the law or endangers a woman’s or child’s health,” another representative testified. “And while HB 1129 addresses a situation that is extremely unlikely and highly unusual, if the scenario presented by the legislation should happen, of course a Planned Parenthood doctor would provide appropriate care to both the woman and the infant.”
Now that Brannon has resuscitated these comments, Planned Parenthood has stepped in again to correct them.
"These absurd and patently false claims by Greg Brannon demonstrate just how extreme and out of touch he is when it comes to women's health issues — and the rest of the Republican Senate candidates in North Carolina are just as dangerous," Planned Parenthood Action Fund Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said in a statement.
Just as troubling as Brannon alleging that a national reproductive health provider is plotting to murder infants is the fact that an OBGYN could spout such medical inaccuracies about pregnancy, abortion care and the "services" provided by anti-choice crisis pregnancy centers.
You can watch the remarks here:
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