Yesterday, The Five promoted Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Instead of noting how out-of-step those efforts are with most of America, they discussed ways of turning Americans against Planned Parenthood and used the discussion to attack Hillary Clinton.
The segment began with Democrat Kirsten Powers saying, “Champions of Planned Parenthood have claimed for years that without the group women would not have access to mammograms. [Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile] Richards was forced to admit today that just is not the truth.”
They played a clip of Richards at a Congressional hearing yesterday, acknowledging that Planned Parenthood does not, itself, have mammogram machines and that she never stated that they did. What nobody mentioned is that Planned Parenthood provides referrals for mammograms. But the suggestion was that mammograms are the only legitimate form of women’s health services they should be providing.
Cohost Melissa Francis suggested Congress should focus on the gruesomeness of the sting videos that she either didn’t know or didn’t care were selectively edited and misleading.
“Why aren’t we talking about law enforcement?” Francis asked. Nobody pointed out that six states have cleared Planned Parenthood and another seven didn’t think there was enough evidence to open an investigation.
But cohost Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor who should have brought up that point, said instead, “Why do they have to have federal funding? Why? Why are they entitled to do that? So federal tax dollars go to help butchering babies? Why is this allowed?"
Nobody objected to her “butchering babies” rhetoric.
Cohost Greg Gutfeld played the Benghazi card with his advice for the GOP Congress. “The same thing with Benghazi. If you focus on one element of who pushed the video, you win the argument. This is about the butchering of children. …So it’s much better to focus on this repulsive part that the media has basically blacked out.”
After Powers offered her own advice to Congress as to how they should have grilled Richards in a more damaging way, she played a clip from Hillary Clinton on Meet The Press responding to a question about any abortion restrictions she would support
CLINTON: I’ve said that there were and that’s under Roe v. Wade, that there can be restrictions in the very end of the 3rd trimester but they have to take into account the life and health of the mother.
Powers complained, “I mean, Kimberly, you have given birth to a child. Like, really?”
GUILFOYLE: It’s so sad to me because why wouldn’t you want to be on the side of preserving life? Why aren’t they saying, "We want to make sure there’s, like, a counselor right there?" There are so many people that need and want children and are desperate to have them and give them love and a home. What the heck is wrong with these people that in the third trimester, you are so selfish and disgusting that you would kill a child that is viable that could be living? And the percentage of cases that she’s talking about, the health of the mother? No one’s out there trying to kill mothers, all right? Take it easy, Hillary, you know?
Powers agreed. “Right. Well, look, we’re talking about a baby that’s almost going to be born,” she said.
Gutfeld took it a step further. “I mean, she’s practically at the point of saying that euthanasia is part of abortion, she’s willing to go as far as you can go,” he sneered.
Guilfoyle then all but broke out a campaign poster.
GUILFOYLE: That should matter, right? …Is that who you want to vote for? …She’s got to own this and people should pay attention, decide if that’s who you want to elect as president of the United States, Hillary Clinton, the architect of the war against babies.
So there you have it. Because Clinton said the life and health of a mother should take precedence over abortion restrictions at the end of a pregnancy (which she otherwise supports), Fox accuses her of waging a war against babies.
Watch it below, from The September 29 The Five, via Media Matters.