Politics

Planned Parenthood attempts to unseat lawmaker whose cousin was killed by Gosnell procedure

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The political arm of Pennsylvania’s Planned Parenthood has endorsed the political opponent of Democratic State Rep. Margo Davidson, the cousin of a woman who died at the hands of Kermit Gosnell.

This week, after backing Davidson in 2010, the Planned Parenthood PAC endorsed Democratic challenger Bill Smith for Davidson’s seat.

“We are extremely disappointed by current 164th District Representative Margo Davidson’s votes on SB 732 and HB 818,” Sari Stevens, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates and PAC said in a statement. “We have faced unprecedented attacks here in Pennsylvania straight out of the Tea Party playbook, and Representative Davidson voted for two such attacks that are now law in Pennsylvania after being an endorsed candidate in 2010.”

Davidson emotionally explained her support for SB 732 — which tightened safety restrictions on abortion facilities and was introduced in response to the Gosnell “House of Horrors” — on the floor of the State House, saying her vote was for her cousin, Semika Shaw, who suffered a horrific death after a visit to the Gosnell clinic.

“Today I honor [Semika’s] memory by voting for this legislation that seeks to safeguard the health of women that is long overdue, so that never again will a woman walk into a licensed healthcare facility in the state of Pennsylvania and be butchered, as she was, with her uterus perforated and her death of sepsis and infection permeating in her body till she writhed in pain on the floor of her home to her ultimate death,” she explained. “And today I thank the members of this house that supported this legislation for the safety of women. And I thank you.”

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Planned Parenthood also took issue with Davidson’s vote against allowing people to get abortions through the Obamacare exchange.

Pro-life groups slammed Plannned Parenthood’s endorsement as revealing the body is not interested in women’s health.

“It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Planned Parenthood is seeking to silence a powerful voice for Kermit Gosnell’s victims,” said Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute. “The decision to attack Rep. Davidson shows where Planned Parenthood’s interests truly lie: power and profits, not women’s health.”

Susan B. Anthony President Marjorie Dannenfelser added that their position was the most “anti-women posture they could possibly take.”

Gosnell is currently serving life in prison for murdering babies in botched late term abortions.

According to the Delaware County Daily Times, Dafan Zhang, a law student, is also on the Democratic primary ballot. Saud Siddiqui, CEO of the Upper Darby Caring Foundation, is running for the seat as a Republican.

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