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EVP of Planned Parenthood Dodges Questions on Her Personal Thoughts on Abortion

March 14, 2017

Dawn Laguens, the Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood, repeatedly dodged Tucker Carlson's questions about her thoughts on abortions while she appeared on his Fox News show on Monday night.

Carlson started off by citing that her organization provides over 300,000 abortions a year and for the most part they are done after five and a half weeks, which is when a heartbeat in the fetus can be detected.

"I'm just wondering, as someone who works there, what do you think of that?" he asked. "What is being aborted? If you can hear the heartbeat, what is that thing being aborted? How do you feel about that?"

Laguens said that abortion is a right in the United States.

"Well abortion is a right in this country. Women have their own views on whether or not they want to be pregnant. That is not a viable fetus at five and a half weeks, anyone knows that," she said. "And what you would do is make your own choice."

Carlson asked again.

"What specifically do you think?" he asked. "You work for the country's biggest abortion provider, if you can hear the heartbeat of this fetus, what is it? Is it a piece of tissue or is it a separate human being?"

"I think that's up to each individual to decide what they believe," Laguens said.

 

Carlson asked her whether a fetus was living or not again, but she dodged the question, saying that she was on the show to speak about the Pence/Ryan deal.

"The Pence-Ryan plan will take away health and cancer screenings and birth control for millions of women in the country," Laguens said.

Carlson accused her of filibustering, and pointed out that the reason why people have a problem with Planned Parenthood is that despite the good work they provide, they also provide abortions.

"If you can hear the fetal heartbeat and it is extinguished, what do you think of that?" Carlson asked. "Is that a big deal or not to you? If not, why not?"

"I take seriously all of the health care work that we provide at Planned Parenthood," Laguens said. "I believe in safe, legal abortion. I believe it it's up to each woman and individual and so I'm not going to make a judgment."

Carlson asked why she would not give him a straight answer to his question.

"This is at the core of what you do, you're the biggest abortion provider in the United States, it's not like you haven't thought about that," he said, referring to his question of whether a fetus was alive or not.

She said that "it is a fetus" that was being aborted.

"You are not telling me what you think," he said. "Is it a separate being or is it a piece of flesh?"

Laguens started to cite statistics from Roe v. Wade instead of answering the question.

"70 percent of Americans believe that Roe v. Wade should be the law of the land," she said.

"I get your talking points," Carlson said. "I've let you repeat them a lot."

Laguens continued to say that she "favor[s] safe abortions" and the fetus is not a viable one at the time of the abortion.

Carlson criticized her for not answering his question of whether a life is being taken when an abortion is performed. He said she was giving "robotic responses" to a human question.

"What does that mean?" he said. "I would think you have thought about it more than anyone."