House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) received a lot of negative press for bullying Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards earlier this week. Part of his act included using a chart of skewed and misleading numbers about Planned Parenthood’s operations, and yet he wants to defend his actions.
He presented a chart during the hearing that appeared to indicate that the number of breast exams conducted by Planned Parenthood had decreased while the number of abortions conducted had increased, and in fact suggested the organization was performing more abortions than breast exams. This is false. What’s more, Chaffetz said the information came straight from the agency’s corporate reports. But, that was a lie that Richards called Chaffetz out on, pointing out that it came from an anti-abortion group.
Chaffetz is still trying to defend his chart and tactics. “I stand by the numbers,” he told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. “I can understand where people would say the arrows went different directions, but the numbers are accurate. And that’s what we were trying to portray.”
Watch.
For more on this story, visit Talking Points Memo “GOP Chair Defends Using Chart From Anti-Abortion Group At Hearing (VIDEO)”
