Republican’s mind blown when witness tells him some Planned Parenthood patients are mothers

A pro-choice advocate blew a Wisconsin Republican's mind Wednesday by reminding him that some Planned Parenthood patients are, in fact, mothers.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) questioned witness Priscilla Smith, who directs Yale Law School's Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice, during a hearing on defunding Planned Parenthood in the wake of deceptively edited videos that appear to show officials discuss the sale of fetal tissue.

“Could you please tell us why Planned Parenthood needs to get over half a billion dollars of federal funding every year when there are other pressing needs, such as feeding hungry children, that maybe we should put that money into?” Sensenbrenner said.

“I’d like to know what your priority is,” he repeated, “Planned Parenthood or feeding hungry children?”

Smith pointed out that some of Planned Parenthood's services, such as affordable contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and cancer screenings, might help the mothers of those poor children.

For Sensenbrenner, that did not compute.

“How can they be the mothers of the children when children are aborted through Planned Parenthood?” Sensenbrenner said.

Smith reminded the congressman that about 60 percent of women who seek an abortion have at least one child, and she told him that access to contraception reduces the number of unwanted pregnancies -- and thus, abortions.

"Well, I don't think that there's statistics that indicate that's the case," Sensenbrenner said.

Watch video of the exchange posted online by RWW Blog: