These past few days have been a whirlwind of news about the women's health-care nonprofit Planned Parenthood.
In fact, Planned Parenthood has been in the news for several months now, and the evolving story will probably continue to be part of the national debate this fall and winter. It could even be the sticking point in a potential December government shutdown.
[How Planned Parenthood could still cause a government shutdown (just not today)]
This all started when ... well, we've already written about the drama a lot here on The Fix. And the hearing is surely getting more attention than your average congressional hearing. Seth Meyers even spent seven minutes on it on Wednesday.
Meyers spent much of that seven minutes going pretty hard after Republicans -- in a way you'd more likely expect from the old "Daily Show" or "Colbert Report."
A sampling of Meyers's take:
- That Planned Parenthood is the "most popular political entity in the country." (This is probably a stretch.)
- He hit the GOP for not letting Planned Parenthood head Cecile Richards answer questions and interrupting her.
- He noted a chart used by committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) wasn't exactly a fair portrayal of Planned Parenthood's number of breast exams versus abortions. The chart basically had no y-axis and was based on data from an anti-abortion-rights group.
- He called Rep. John Duncan's (R-Tenn.) question about whether Richards expected to be treated more easily because she is a woman "stupid."
- He said that Republicans "don't believe in funding for affordable health care."
This post has been updated to more accurately reflect Meyers's clear point of view.
