http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/251626-planned-parenthood-threatens-legal-action-against-makers-of-videosBy Kevin Cirilli - 08/21/15 06:08 AM EDT
Planned Parenthood is threatening legal action against the pro-life organization that has released a series of secretly recorded videos scrutinizing the health provider’s fetal tissue donation program.
In an exclusive interview with The Hill, Planned Parenthood's executive vice president Dawn Laguens said the group is "considering everything" in going after the Center For Medical Progress, the group behind the release of videos.
"I absolutely do believe that they have violated laws in terms of how they secured these videos," she said in an interview at the group's Washington D.C.'s headquarters. "But the fraud is also in how they have presented them and in the editing."
"We are considering everything," she said. "I'm not a lawyer — but everything is on the table when you look at these videos and the fraud and the conspiracy behind it."
She slammed Republicans for threatening to take away the group's $528 million in annual federal funding — and she predicted Planned Parenthood would defeat their conservative critics after this fall's budget battle.
"The Republican presidential candidates are completely out of step with the American people," she said.
Asked point-blank whether the group would still receive federal funds after the fall, she answered confidently: "Yes."
"I certainly believe that [we'll be funded] because I believe the American people are speaking — and our patients, the one-in-five women who rely on Planned Parenthood over their lifetime — are [speaking to lawmakers]," she said.
In the aftermath of the videos, the group's funding has become a flashpoint in the presidential race.
Republicans, including top-tier candidates such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have called for lawmakers to end federal funding for the group.
“I think future generations will look back at this history of our country and call us barbarians for murdering millions of babies who we never gave them a chance to live,” Rubio said at the first presidential debate.
Laguens said that "if you look at what the American people believe — it's more important than what Sen. Marco Rubio believes."
"If every woman who had an abortion in this country stood up, this debate would be over," she said.
She criticized another presidential candidate, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), for considering showing the controversial videos at an outdoor movie screen outside of the governor's mansion.
"He is severely lagging in the polls, and I believe this is a political stunt aimed at trying to invigorate his far-right base," she said.
Laguens said their running political attack ads earlier this week will only continue.
"These ads aren't anything about fundraising," she said. "They're reminding people that their senators are taking positions that those people have said they absolutely oppose."
She called on the video creators to submit "all of the videos and the source footage unedited and they would hand it to Congress and law enforcement" instead of having to "splice it together in all sorts of crazy ways in order to tell a political story."
