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| Donna Edwards: Democrats need to challenge Republicans on abortion | Donna Edwards: Democrats need to challenge Republicans on abortion |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Democrats on a special committee focused on abortion providers should use the panel to target violence against clinic operators, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) said Thursday. | Democrats on a special committee focused on abortion providers should use the panel to target violence against clinic operators, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) said Thursday. |
| The special House committee was created by Republicans to investigate practices related to abortions and fetal-tissue procurement after the release of videos by an antiabortion group that showed Planned Parenthood staff discussing the harvesting of fetal tissue. | |
| At a news conference held by several women’s groups in Washington, Edwards — who is running for the U.S. Senate — said Democrats should use the panel to instead investigate connections between antiabortion groups and violent attacks on clinics. | At a news conference held by several women’s groups in Washington, Edwards — who is running for the U.S. Senate — said Democrats should use the panel to instead investigate connections between antiabortion groups and violent attacks on clinics. |
| “I would call on my colleagues to continue to step up the questions of the witnesses, to ask for additional witnesses and to press our Republican colleagues that if they really want to do this in the spirit of democracy, that it has to be a fair and open process,” Edwards said. “We have seen that work to great effect even in these partisan-controlled committees, and I think it can happen in this one.” | “I would call on my colleagues to continue to step up the questions of the witnesses, to ask for additional witnesses and to press our Republican colleagues that if they really want to do this in the spirit of democracy, that it has to be a fair and open process,” Edwards said. “We have seen that work to great effect even in these partisan-controlled committees, and I think it can happen in this one.” |
| Only two Democrats in the House voted for the committee’s creation in November; Edwards was not one of them. However, she said that now that it exists, the committee should not go to waste. | Only two Democrats in the House voted for the committee’s creation in November; Edwards was not one of them. However, she said that now that it exists, the committee should not go to waste. |
| She said Democrats should take the opportunity to question the activists who made the video, from a group called the Center for Medical Progress, “about how their activities may contribute to antiabortion harassment, intimidation and violence.” | She said Democrats should take the opportunity to question the activists who made the video, from a group called the Center for Medical Progress, “about how their activities may contribute to antiabortion harassment, intimidation and violence.” |
| There have been “multiple major incidents” targeting clinics since the antiabortion videos came out, Laura Meyers, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., said at the news conference, including a shooting at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in November that killed three people. | |
| Edwards, who is in a heated Democratic primary race against Rep. Chris Van Hollen, recalled her own history with Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights, as both a woman and an activist. | Edwards, who is in a heated Democratic primary race against Rep. Chris Van Hollen, recalled her own history with Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights, as both a woman and an activist. |
| She went to Planned Parenthood for health care as a teenager, she said, and marched for reproductive rights on the Mall with her infant son in 1989. | |
| Though she and Van Hollen have very similar records on abortion, Edwards and her supporters argue that more women’s voices are needed in this debate. Edwards is running to replace Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D), the longest-serving woman in congressional history. |