This week, one senator running for reelection responded to the death of former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by deciding to trumpet this on her resume: “I’m the only Senator to have worked at Planned Parenthood.”
Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith, who has worked as an executive at Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and North and South Dakota, tweeted, “I’m the only Senator to have worked at Planned Parenthood. I’ve seen first-hand how far Republican attacks on reproductive rights will go. If they get this SCOTUS seat, they WILL work to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
I’m the only Senator to have worked at Planned Parenthood.
I’ve seen first-hand how far Republican attacks on reproductive rights will go. If they get this SCOTUS seat, they WILL work to overturn Roe v. Wade.
— Tina Smith (@TinaSmithMN) September 22, 2020
Minnesota GOP senatorial candidate Jason Lewis responded, “Senator @TinaSmith made a career and fortune taking the lives of the unborn and she’s wearing it as a badge of honor. It’s disgraceful. She also said on the Senate floor that providing medical treatment to a newborn who survives a botched abortion attempt would be ‘inappropriate.’”
Senator @TinaSmithMN made a career & fortune taking the lives of the unborn & she’s wearing it as a badge of honor. It’s disgraceful.
She also said on the Senate floor that providing medical treatment to a newborn who survives a botched abortion attempt would be “inappropriate.” https://t.co/giR4HnI3QI
— Jason Lewis (@LewisForMN) September 22, 2020
As MPR has reported, “Smith was an executive for Planned Parenthood in Minnesota and North and South Dakota from 2003 to 2006 before she entered politics.” Prior to sitting in the Senate, Smith was the lieutenant governor of Minnesota; she won a 2018 special election to fill the seat after former senator Al Franken resigned.
Former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson stated to Breitbart:
Since Sen. Smith worked at Planned Parenthood, she knows full well how they treat women, how they tell vulnerable women there is no way they can have a baby and achieve their dreams, how they push their clinics to meet abortion quotas, how they have clinic workers who piece together the pieces of aborted babies daily. I know how easy it is to justify the lies Planned Parenthood tells and to think that you are helping women who walk through those doors. And I’ve got more than 550 former abortion workers who testify to this truth that I’ve helped leave abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood does the very opposite of empowering women and unfortunately I participated in those lies for eight years. It’s never too late to see the truth and experience the mercy of God, which is there for everyone, including Sen. Smith.
Elizabeth Johnston noted that The Minnesota Sun reported in February 2019:
Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), a former Planned Parenthood executive, is proudly defending her vote against a bill that would protect babies who survive botched abortions. “Colleagues, that’s what this bill does. It would give the politicians in this room the power to make medical decisions for women and their families. This bill intimidates providers and forces physicians to provide inappropriate medical treatment, even when it’s not in the best interest of the patient or her family,” Smith said during a Senate floor debate Monday.
Lewis said recently that he thought that he would win in November in Minnesota and so would President Trump. He stated, “As the urban liberals become a little bit more crazy, it drives everybody else into Trump country and red country,” according to Fox News. He added, “And especially so since Donald Trump has done the most important thing he could for the GOP, and he’s brought the working man and woman back to the party. I think we are going to win, and I think the president is going to win.”