WASHINGTON -- The head of Planned Parenthood defended the women's health organization Tuesday before a Republican-run Congress bent on slashing its federal funding, telling lawmakers that accusations against her group fed by secretly recorded videos are "offensive and categorically untrue."
In Planned Parenthood executives' first appearance before Congress since the videos emerged in the summer, Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee argued that the group should get no taxpayer financing.
They cited Planned Parenthood tax documents showing that the organization spends millions on political activities, travel and salaries.
"That's money that's not going to women's health care," said committee chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. "It's a political organization, and that's something that needs to be ferreted out.
"As far as I can tell, this is an organization that doesn't need federal subsidies. They're pretty good at fundraising. They don't really need taxpayer dollars."
Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's president, told the lawmakers that her group has fallen victim to a "smear campaign" based on videos in which its officials describe how they sometimes harvest tissue from aborted fetuses for scientific research.
Conservatives and many Republicans say the videos -- made by abortion opponents posing as private purchasers of fetal organs -- show that Planned Parenthood has broken federal laws, including a ban on for-profit fetal tissue sales. The organization says it acted legally and says the videos were deceitfully edited.
"The outrageous accusations leveled against Planned Parenthood, based on heavily doctored videos, are offensive and categorically untrue," Richards said. "Planned Parenthood policies not only comply with, but indeed go beyond, the requirements of the law."
Whether the videos were manipulated is under investigation, but Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told Richards, "You can say all you want, but a picture is worth a thousand words."
Jordan asked Richards why she had previously apologized when the first videos surfaced if she denies their credibility.
"In my opinion, it was inappropriate to have a clinical discussion in a nonclinical setting, nonconfidential area," Richards said of a scene in the video. "It did not reflect the compassionate care that we provide."
Richards also said the videos have inspired an increase in threats against Planned Parenthood clinics.
The recordings have created an electric political atmosphere around Planned Parenthood and the abortions that many of its nearly 700 clinics provide. Many GOP presidential candidates have frequently lambasted the group. Conservatives' demands that Congress cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood -- something Republicans lack the votes to do -- contributed to the GOP unrest that prompted House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to announce his resignation last week.
Planned Parenthood gets about a third of its $1.3 billion yearly budget from federal payments, mostly reimbursements for treating low-income Medicaid patients. By law, nearly no federal funds can be used for abortions.
Richards said federal funds help the group provide a variety of health services to women, including birth control, cancer screenings, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, in addition to abortions.
She said Medicaid reimburses Planned Parenthood for its services. Moreover, she said no federal funds are used to pay for abortions, except in certain cases, such as rape and incest, in accordance with federal law.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that cutting off federal aid to Planned Parenthood would increase federal Medicaid spending by $650 million until 2025 and could reduce access to health care for 25 percent of Planned Parenthood's 2.7 million yearly patients.
Congress is on track to approve legislation this week preventing a federal shutdown and continuing federal payments to Planned Parenthood. But House committees began working Tuesday on separate legislation that would cut most of the organization's federal money and would be immune to Senate filibuster by Democrats. That means that measure has a strong chance of reaching President Barack Obama's desk, where it would likely face a veto.
Richards said just 1 percent of Planned Parenthood clinics collect fetal tissue that abortion patients request be donated for research. She said she is "proud" of the fetal-tissue work but called it a "minuscule" part of the services Planned Parenthood provides. The tissue is used to research cures and treatments for diseases, she said.
Tuesday's hearing occurred in a crowded but orderly hearing room dotted with Planned Parenthood supporters in pink T-shirts. Also seated were abortion opponents who initially wore masking tape over their mouths bearing the word "Life," which they removed when asked to do so by police.
The audience witnessed partisan exchanges among lawmakers.
After noting that nearly all of Planned Parenthood's political activity benefits Democrats, Jordan said, "No wonder they're defending this repulsive game." He also called the organization's fetal tissue work "barbaric."
And after Chaffetz cited tax documents that he said showed that Richards -- seated before him -- was earning $590,000 a year, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., accused him of "beating up on a woman, to our witness today, for making a good salary."
Republicans repeatedly asked Richards how much money Planned Parenthood makes from the more than 300,000 abortions it performs annually. She said she did not have a figure but said she has submitted forms from each of the group's 59 local affiliates detailing their incomes.
The hearing came on the same day the House used a near party-line vote to let states stop reimbursing abortion providers with funds from Medicaid. Medicaid is jointly funded with federal and state money. The GOP measure, which would make it harder for low-income people to find doctors who provide abortions, is unlikely to pass in the Senate.
It also came a day after state investigators in Missouri said they'd uncovered "no evidence whatsoever" that the state's only surgical abortion facility sells fetal remains.
Attorney General Chris Koster said members of the public and state lawmakers had asked his office to look into the allegations. But in a statement released Monday, Koster said the investigation had found no evidence that a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis acted unlawfully.
Investigators reviewed more than 3,500 pages of documents and conducted multiple interviews at the clinic and the pathology laboratory. The 47-page report included copies of lab reports and waste-disposal tracking documents.
It said the investigation covered 317 surgical abortions that took place in June, a month that was chosen because the procedures happened before the release of the videos in July.
At least five other states -- Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Dakota -- also have cleared Planned Parenthood of breaking laws.
Also Tuesday, a judge blocked an order issued by Utah's Republican Gov. Gary Herbert to cut off federal money to Planned Parenthood.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups issued the temporary restraining order during a hearing, allowing the money to keep flowing while the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah seeks a longer-term injunction. Planned Parenthood sought the emergency order a day after suing Herbert. It said some programs would have expired today if the money was blocked.
Planned Parenthood has defended itself with newspaper ads, petition campaigns and lawsuits against state efforts to curb its funding. On Tuesday, volunteers and supporters scheduled events in nearly 90 cities and planned to give lawmakers more than 2 million signatures on "I Stand With Planned Parenthood" petitions.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram, David Crary and Michelle L. Price of The Associated Press; by Kathleen Miller of Bloomberg News; by Christine Hauser of The New York Times; and by Grace Toohey of Tribune News Service.
A Section on 09/30/2015