In the News

Six Democratic members of Congress, including Washington Rep. Suzan Delbene, have urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to disband a select committee appointed to probe Planned Parenthood, citing last Friday’s killings at a Planned Parenthood women’s health clinic in Colorado and other attacks on health centers.

They coined a name for the panel, calling it the “Select Committee to Attack Women’s Health.”

“Three Congressional committees have already investigated Planned Parenthood based on videos manufactured by an ideological organization that opposes safe and legal abortion services and Republican Chairman Jason Chaffetz has admitted that there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood has broken any laws. Rather than spending millions more taxpayer dollars on another special Benghazi-like committee to reinvestigate inflammatory and baseless allegations, Congress should turn its attention to ensuring that women get the vital and legal health care services they need.”“In the past several months, we have seen an uptick in violence against women’s health centers that perform abortions,” said the six House members. “We cannot live in a society where women are afraid to go to their doctor.

The House Republican leadership has faced a demand to defund Planned Parenthood, which gets federal money for non-abortion related services such as breast cancer screenings.

The rhetoric has grown heated.

“Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to Black lives than the KKK ever was,” GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said recently. Donald Trump, once a vocal supporter of abortion rights, said of PP clinics: “It is like an abortion factory, frankly.” (Only 3 percent of services provided at the organization’s health clinics are abortion related.)

A Planned Parenthood clinic in Pullman, serving the Washington State University and University of Idaho communities, was largely destroyed in an arson attack early on the morning of September 4.

Speaker Ryan is unlikely to grant the Democrats requests. Nearly two weeks after the burning of the Pullman clinic, which is in her Eastern Washington district, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rdogers, R-Wash., kept up unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood.

“What kind of a country are we if we think @PPFA’s actions are acceptable?” McMorris Rodgers, a member of the House Republican leadership, asked in a Sept. 17 tweet.

“3 powerful committees are investigating and we will pass legislation to hold @PPFA accountable. This is just a start,” McMorris Rodgers tweeted later that day.

“They provide health services to women all across the country,” Obama replied. “They have for generations, in many cases it’s the only organization that provides health services to impoverished women.President Obama was asked about Planned Parenthood on Tuesday during a news conference at the global climate summit in Paris.

“I think it’s fair to have a legitimate, honest debate about abortion. I don’t think that’s something that is beyond the pale of our political discussion. It’s a serious, legitimate issue. How we talk about it, making sure we talk about it factually, accurately and not demonizing organizations like Planned Parenthood is important.”

Rep. DelBene is the first House member from Washington in years to serve on the House Judiciary Committee.

A former Microsoft vice president, she has found herself dealing with such complex issues as intellectual property rights and government surveillance. But DelBene has also been thrust into the midst of ideological causes, such as House Republicans’ efforts to ban all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.