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Hillary Hires Former Planned Parenthood Staffer for Asian Outreach

Announcement comes as organ-harvesting scandal deepens

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Clinton / AP
August 26, 2015

The Hillary Clinton campaign has hired a former Planned Parenthood organizer to rally support from Asian Americans.

The Clinton campaign announced on Tuesday that it hired Lisa Changadveja, a former Planned Parenthood official. Changadveja took a job with the embattled abortionist after serving as a regional field director for Clinton’s failed 2008 run and deputy field director for Gov. Bill Bennett of Colorado during his successful gubernatorial campaign in 2010.

Her LinkedIN profile says that she oversaw Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) operations in the Mountain West. She "provided on-site, e-mail, and telephone public affairs consulting, advocacy training, and technical assistance for 7 affiliates in 6 states," it says.

She will now lead outreach for the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. That demographic voted overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama in 2012, though his support in that group varied drastically by region.

"89% of Asian Americans polled in Pennsylvania, and 86% of Asian Americans polled at sites in both New York and Michigan, voted for Obama, However, Obama received 57% of the Asian American vote at sites polled in Texas and only 16% at sites in Louisiana," according to a study by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Changadveja’s job is similar to the role she filled in the Ready for Hillary super PAC, which was formed to clear the path for Clinton’s nomination. She handled Asian and LGBT outreach before the PAC disbanded when the former secretary of state made her candidacy official.

Changadveja is the latest Planned Parenthood alum to join the Clinton campaign. One of Clinton’s top staffers in Iowa, the nation’s first primary state, is the daughter of Cecile Richards, the CEO of Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood is now embroiled in numerous government investigations after undercover videographers from the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life nonprofit group, captured top officials at the nation’s largest abortionist candidly discussing the best ways to harvest and "line item" organs from aborted babies. Federal law prohibits changing abortion methods to preserve tissue, as well as profiting from the practice.

Clinton was initially silent on the videos, but later told a New Hampshire newspaper she found the images "disturbing." She later backtracked from that criticism and has attacked Republican presidential contenders for seeking to defund Planned Parenthood. Foreign policy agencies poured tens of millions of dollars into the abortionist during Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.

Planned Parenthood and others entangled in the organ harvesting have longstanding ties to Clinton. Cate Dyer, co-founder of StemExpress, keeps a signed copy of Clinton’s headshot on her desk. Planned Parenthood employees have given 20 times more money to Clinton in 2015 than to all the other candidates combined.

The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment.