Carly Fiorina said Monday that Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards should “probably” resign after the group was found to be involved with supplying aborted fetal tissue.
“Cecile Richards can step down, she probably should step down,” the Republican presidential candidate told Boston Herald Radio. But the former Hewlett-Packard CEO also insisted even if Richards were to step down, it wouldn’t fundamentally change Planned Parenthood.
“But unless something fundamental changes, that we stop funding these people with taxpayer dollars, that they are actually investigated and prosecuted, the reality is nothing’s really going to change,” Fiorina added.
Fiorina and Planned Parenthood have been butting political heads after Fiorina blasted the group during the last GOP debate for providing the tissue, which was obtained from aborted fetuses. Undercover videos showing top Planned Parenthood officials discussing the practice has incited broad Republican outrage against the group.
In the Herald interview, Fiorina called Planned Parenthood a “political operation,” noting that its political action fund gives almost exclusively to Democratic candidates.
“Cecile Richards stepping down won’t solve any of that, because Planned Parenthood has been a political operation for a long time,” said Fiorina, who ranks second in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings. “I’m not saying Cecile Richards shouldn’t step down, I’m just saying that’s the tip of the iceberg.”
Planned Parenthood says it has done nothing wrong, which Richards iterated as she appeared before Congress last week. Donating aborted fetal tissue and getting compensated for it is permissible by law, as long as the providers don’t turn a profit.
