The president of Planned Parenthood will testify before Congress next week amid a heated battle over whether to strip millions of federal dollars from her group.
The House Oversight Committee announced that Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, will appear before the panel on Tuesday morning, where she’ll make her case for why Congress shouldn’t try to cut money from the women’s health and abortion clinics as part of a government funding plan.
Planned Parenthood has been embroiled in controversy after a series of undercover videos highlighted how some of its clinics provide aborted fetal tissue for medical research. Republicans, who say the group may have illegally profited from the tissue or performed partial-birth abortions to obtain it, are probing the group in three different congressional committees.
Planned Parenthood Vice President Eric Ferrero said that by accepting the invitation to testify, the group is showing it’s “fully transparent and cooperative” with the investigations.
“We look forward to sharing the facts with this committee, which include that fetal tissue donation for medical research is an important but tiny part of Planned Parenthood’s work in just two states, that we’ve had guidance in place for more than a decade in this area that goes well beyond the legal requirements, and that even doctored and discredited videos show no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood,” he said in a statement.
The videos have also sparked a major battle between a group of House conservatives and Republican leaders, who may have to forge a government funding deal with Democrats unless the conservatives relinquish their demands that it must ban federal funds from going to Planned Parenthood.
Currently funding for the government runs out on Oct 1. Richards will appear before the committee just two days prior.
Planned Parenthood clinics get millions in federal dollars every year for providing health services, mostly through Medicaid and Title 10 family planning funds. The group is not allowed to use the funds for abortions, but Republicans say the questions raised by the videos should be enough to block its federal funding.
If Republicans do try to advance a spending bill cutting Planned Parenthood funding, that bill would only address discretionary funds that Congress gives the group, which is roughly $60 million of the $450 million the group gets each year.
