Cecile Richards: I Testified Before Congress--Here's What I Want Dr. Christine Blasey Ford to Know

[kpete]

Dear Dr. Blasey Ford,

I can’t imagine what you’ve been through over the past two weeks. The behavior of some United States Senators who sit on the judiciary committee has underscored how brave survivors must be to weather the hostility and public shaming they too often face. Senator Lindsay Graham (R–S.C.) has likened your decision to come forward to a drive-by shooting and 84-year-old Senator Orrin Hatch (R–Utah) has said you must be “mixed up."

Nevertheless, it seems, you persist. I hope you have also felt the flood of sympathy and solidarity from women and men across the country—including many of us for whom your experiences sound all too familiar. If and when you walk into that Senate hearing, you will not be alone; we’ll be with you.

In anticipation of your possible testimony, I have been reliving my own five hours before a hostile Republican-led committee that wanted to end access to Planned Parenthood.

Any woman who has been called before a Republican-led panel knows it’s not about “fact-finding.” It’s political theater masquerading as a search for truth.

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that the name of the game that day wasn’t fact-finding. There was no search for the truth. Instead, it was an opportunity for hostile men in Congress to grill me on everything from my salary to my competency to my memory—and, overall, to humiliate and shame me. And all of this on national television.

But as unpleasant as those hours were, I had on my side two things the hostile congressmen did not.
First, the one in five women in America who have been to Planned Parenthood, who depend upon the organization for lifesaving health care, gave me courage that day. I knew they were standing with me, just as millions of women and men across the country are standing with you—including the many women in America who have themselves been sexually assaulted. When you speak, you speak for all of us.

Second, and most important, what you have on your side is the same thing I was armed with: the truth. No amount of bullying and finger-pointing can take that away. Even if the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate doesn’t want to hear that truth, you will tell it, and the American people will be listening and cheering you on.

And know this: After my hearing, not only did I feel better for speaking our truth to power—I couldn’t walk down the street without someone stopping me and thanking me; the same will be true for you. And though your detractors may be loud, in the end, their anger will be overwhelmed by the love and support from women everywhere.
We believe you. We are with you.

In Solidarity,
Cecile Richards
Author and former president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

[question everything]

1. Well said, for this event

But the truth is that each member of Congress is using his or her position to question someone as a photo op and future campaign item.

I remember in 2009 when our people grilled the heads of the car companies, perhaps even the banks and I was watching, again, our guys, and thinking that they did not care about the answers; they were thinking of their next campaign.

But that's the way it is.

[libdem4life]

4. Unfortunately for these cretins,

they negatively besmirch 1/2 of Their Own Constituents. My experience with relatives such as these, when actually confronted they mostly do one of two things ... sadly shake their head in understanding or, release their own experience. These days fewer and fewer side with the bullies (and I don't mean men...I mean knee-jerk blamers and shamers...it can refer to both genders)

Then to match their rush to judgement, the calendar is rushing the electorate to judgment. It's then Up or Down.

[LanternWaste]

5. More accurately, "that's the way I think it is..."

"But that's the way it is...."

[dem4decades]

2. Beautifully said.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

[Staph]

6. There has been a flood of folks nominating Avenatti

for everything from congress to the presidency.

I nominate Cecile Richards for . . . well, for any office she cares to run for. She takes after her mama!

[zentrum]

7. To have a woman lawyer

...question Ford instead of the wall of white Repug men pushing this is a dirty trick. They want to make it woman vs. woman. And not repeat the Anita Hill optics.

Craven corporate scum feeders. Every one of them.

[flibbitygiblets]

9. I hope Ford's lawyers coached her to look around that female lawyer, point her finger at those male

senators, and say "SHAME on you cowards for protecting a serial rapist. SHAME on you for not insisting on a REAL investigation. I am willing to testify to the FBI under penalty of jail. Why isn't your 'VIRGIN CHOIR BOY' willing to do the same?"

[zentrum]

10. Send this to Booker!

And Harris!

[suffragette]

8. K&R