Walberg simply does not believe in a woman’s right to choose
In light of the news that a Texas grand jury has indicted the two creators of the heavily-edited Planned Parenthood videos and rejected criminal allegations against Planned Parenthood, it’s clear Congressman Tim Walberg was all too eager to jump to ideological conclusions at the risk of women’s health.
Furthermore, Walberg has voted 6 times to defund Planned Parenthood, supposedly due to these fabricated videos, putting Walberg on the wrong side of the many Michigan women and families who count on Planned Parenthood for critical health care each year.
Tim Walberg even supported shutting down the federal government over the Planned Parenthood videos, and deliberately misrepresented the findings of the videos in a committee hearing.
“We have long known that Tim Walberg is on the wrong side of a woman’s right to choose, but does Walberg still stand with the now-indicted creators of the Planned Parenthood videos? After six votes to defund Planned Parenthood and even trying to shut down the government over it, it’s not easy to break through Walberg’s extreme ideological wall when it comes to women’s health, but maybe these charges will be enough,” said Sacha Haworth of the DCCC.
Background:
Walberg Voted Six Times Against Funding For Planned Parenthood. Walberg voted six times to attempt to defund Planned Parenthood, in part or whole. [HR 3134, Vote #504, 9/18/15; Democratic Leader – Motions To Recommit, 9/18/15; HR 3134, Vote #505, 9/18/15; Washington Post, 9/18/15; HR 3495, Vote #524, 9/29/15; Duffy Press Release, 9/29/15; H Con Res 79, Vote #527, 9/30/15; CQ Floor Votes, 9/30/15; HR 3762, Vote #568, 10/23/15; Fox News, 10/23/15; HR 3762, Vote #6, 1/06/16; The Hill, 1/06/16]
Walberg Voted Against Short-Term Continuing Resolution To Prevent Government Shutdown That Included Planned Parenthood Funding. “Just hours before a midnight deadline, a divided Congress approved a stopgap spending bill Wednesday to keep the federal government open … Rep. Tim Walberg, R Tipton, voted no…Approval of such stopgap measures used to be routine, but debate this year exposed acrimonious divisions between pragmatic Republicans such as House Speaker John Boehner and more junior lawmakers in the party’s tea party wing who are less inclined to compromise. The tea parties had demanded that the must pass measure be used to punish Planned Parenthood, stripping it of federal money because of its practice of supplying tissue from aborted fetuses for scientific research.” [The Daily Telegram, 10/01/15; HR 719, Vote #528, 9/30/15]
Walberg Misrepresented Conclusion Of Planned Parenthood Video Report. In September 2015, Walberg said, “Planned Parenthood commissioned a report by Fusion GPS examining the authenticity of the videos. The conclusion of that report says the analysis did not reveal widespread evidence of ‘substantive video manipulation’ and it shows ‘no evidence of audio manipulation.’” However, the Fusion GPS executive summary actually stated, “While these analysts found no evidence that CMP inserted dialogue not spoken by Planned Parenthood staff, their review did conclude that CMP edited content out of the alleged ‘full footage’ videos, and heavily edited the short videos so as to misrepresent statements made by Planned Parenthood representatives … the manipulation of the videos does mean they have no evidentiary value in a legal context and cannot be relied upon for any official inquiries unless supplemented by CMP’s original material and forensic authentication that this material is supplied in unaltered form. The videos also lack credibility as journalistic products.” [Rep. Walberg, Planned Parenthood Hearing, 9/29/15; Fusion GPS Report, 8/25/15]