Although the attempt to defund Planned Parenthood failed in the Senate, Glenn gave credit to Senator Rand Paul for actively trying to do something about the destruction of innocent life.
The senator had some strong words to say about the “callous disregard of the doctors” as well as suggestions on how the American people can help.
"One idea I’ve had is that everybody should send a copy of the ultrasound of their baby. You know, most parents are proud of the first ultrasound of their baby. They ought to send that to their legislator and say you know what, ultrasound has been used for such good," he said.
Watch the full interview in the video below.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment:
Glenn: Although the attempt to defund Planned Parenthood failed in the Senate yesterday, Senator Rand Paul deserves credit for actively trying to do something about the destruction of innocent life. Senator Paul joins me from the Capitol now. Senator, how are you, sir?
Sen. Paul: Very good, Glenn. Thanks for having me.
Glenn: It is extraordinarily disturbing to me that we couldn’t muster up enough even Republicans to stop this. For some reason, the people in Congress or in the Senate don’t see this as baby harvesting like I do and like you do.
Sen. Paul: Well, I think the videos are incredibly disturbing, and when I heard about them using ultrasound to manipulate the baby into a position so it can be removed a little bit at a time so they can get at the baby’s organs, kidneys, livers, and sort of the callous disregard by the doctor sort of saying oh yeah, livers are popular, it’s hard to hear that and for people not to realize these are coming from a fully formed baby. I think we rarely get the debate in such sharp relief. We often have the debate where the other side wants to call it tissue, but when we’re talking about lungs, brains, hearts, livers, I think it’s hard and should make all sort of people shudder that we’re doing this.
Glenn: Can I talk to as a doctor, not as a political guy or a candidate right now? Let me just talk to you and ask two questions as a doctor. First of all, what do you as a doctor say to those doctors that are doing this?
Sen. Paul: You know, we have an ancient oath, the Hippocratic Oath, that says first do no harm. I don’t know how you can be consistent with any kind of oath like that. Years ago they took out some of the specifics towards abortion and sort of somehow in their minds qualify and say abortion is not doing harm. I don’t know how anyone could do that day in and day out knowing that you’re pulling out the pieces of a baby. I mean, I don’t know how they do it and how they live with themselves. I think it’s a good debate for us to be having. Those on the other side of the issue should be ostracized. They should be removed from office.
The vast majority of Republicans did vote for this. Every Republican except for one and then two Democrats did vote with us. The real question as to whether the vote was important will be determined by the electorate when these people go back to the polls, and so we shouldn’t let this die. We also should vote to defund them through the appropriation process.
I’m a believer that thousands of items should be targeted for defunding, not just one or two, not just ObamaCare, not just Planned Parenthood. The power of the purse is Congress to direct funding, and we’ve gotten away from that to where people think oh, it’s extraordinary for us to tell the president. That’s actually our job to do that.
Glenn: Right. The other thing I want to ask you as a doctor is the argument on the other side is this is hurting, you’re going after—Rand Paul, and I heard this specifically, Rand Paul is going after women’s health.
Sen. Paul: Well, it’s absolutely just untrue. There are 9000 community health centers. We have thrown more federal money at healthcare than we ever have in the history of time. You can’t go a block in our country and not find something for free, and so we have 9000 community health centers funded by the government, $5 billion. We’ve doubled it in recent years, and there’s 700 Planned Parenthood clinics. So, 9000 free government clinics, 700 Planned Parenthood, the only difference is Planned Parenthood offers abortion. The other difference is Planned Parenthood doesn’t offer most of the women’s health items they say they offer. They don’t offer mammograms. The exams are not done by doctors for breast exams. You’re typically referred somewhere else. So, it’s been a crock for a long time. It’s been a front for abortion, and let’s have this debate.
They’re also huge funders of the Democrat party and huge funders of liberals, and so I guarantee they’re going to come after me and target me. They’ve also targeted Joni Ernst as well.
Glenn: I heard Hillary Clinton in a statement she recorded recently where she said I am proud to stand with Planned Parenthood, and I was struck—because I’ve seen the video, I was struck on how evil that is. I said today that I don’t think I’ve seen anything in America that is this close to Josef Mengele. Is that hyperbole?
Sen. Paul: Now Glenn, that would be the first time you had hyperbole—
Glenn: I know.
Sen. Paul: What I would say is that if you ask the general public about removing a fully formed baby and harvesting its organs, I think you’re probably going to get a 70%, 80% issue. There are some hardcore people who don’t care, but like I say, I know a lot of people from all walks of life, not just conservatives, I know pro-choice women, and you know what, they’re horrified by this. So, when we’re talking about a fully formed baby, the numbers go lopsided in our direction. It’s a rare person who thinks fully formed babies ought to be taken out.
The whole idea of third trimester abortion is kind of crazy because at that point if it’s a risk to the mother, try to save the baby, remove the baby through C-section if it’s a risk to the mother. Most third trimester babies can actually have a chance of surviving.
Glenn: I have to tell you, after I saw Cecil the lion and the outcry from the left on Cecil the lion and the silence or the acceptance of baby harvesting, am I wrong to say this is baby harvesting?
Sen. Paul: No, I think it is. It’s harvesting of baby organs, and there seems to be a neglect on their part.
Glenn: Yeah. I see this, I don’t think this, Rand, and maybe this is a new understanding for me and maybe it goes much further than just this one issue, but I don’t think this is a problem with Washington. I think this is a problem with the American people. The American people, when we care more about Cecil the lion than we care about baby harvesting, I’m afraid for our country. I really am truly afraid of what we’re becoming.
Sen. Paul: Well, what I’ve always told people is I’m known for someone standing up for individual rights, the right to be left alone, and most choices in life you should get. The thing is all those rights derive from a right to your life and to have no one physically aggress against your life. We really need to have this debate in our country when does life begin? When they had the debate a few years ago over partial-birth abortion, at least one of the Democrats was honest enough to say that if the baby did come out, was still alive, and you weren’t able to kill the baby before it came out, that really the baby wasn’t a baby until you take the baby home.
I’ve worked in a neonatal nursery. I’ve worked with babies that are a pound, pound and a half that survive and end up doing fine. We examine their eyes to make sure they don’t go blind from being born so early, but to think that that baby doesn’t really have rights until you take them home, it’s absurd, and I think most people don’t believe that. If this radical notion from these people were well known, I think we begin to win the argument a little more, and I think actually we are, but we aren’t yet there. Washington is always a decade behind the people, and people need to do a better job of hurrying up and replacing some of these legislators so we could actually get to the will of the people.
Glenn: I mean, I’ve never been a guy who—I don’t go in front of abortion clinics and protest. I don’t protest anything. I’m a slug of an American. This one so deeply bothers me, Rand. I mean, we’re doing something in Birmingham on August 28th where the slogan is all lives matter, and it’s true—black lives matter, white lives matter, baby lives matter, old people’s lives matter. What can the average person do who has never really protested and don’t see themselves standing in front of an abortion clinic? How can we help?
Sen. Paul: You know, one idea I’ve had is that everybody should send a copy of the ultrasound of their baby. You know, most parents are proud of the first ultrasound of their baby. They ought to send that to their legislator and say you know what, ultrasound has been used for such good. You can actually save babies in the womb through surgery now. Send that ultrasound and say you know what, our taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be getting ultrasounds of babies so we can manipulate them around to harvest their organs. That was one of the things that upset me about it is they talk about doing abortion under ultrasound so they can actually use this great technology not to save a baby but to actually manipulate the baby into a position so you can harvest the organs.
Glenn: Can I look at this a different way? I was talking about this on the air today on radio, and I said if I had an abortion and I didn’t have a problem with abortion, I think I would be a little upset that I didn’t get a kickback in this. How dare you take my baby from me, what is mine? I’m paying you $1000 to do it, and then you’re selling the baby?
Sen. Paul: Well, the investigation ought to be what kind of consent is actually being obtained. I’m guessing when this consent is being obtained that no one is telling them we are going to harvest your baby’s organs. And actually they might say tissue, but they’re not going to admit that the procedure you’re going to get is going to have a baby with arms, legs, kidneys, livers, lungs, and that there’s a different price for each organ. I don’t think that’s being discussed. I would very much imagine that that is glossed over and that people are being run through, and it’s just a little extra money making to make expenses for Planned Parenthood.
Glenn:: I’m not a lawyer, and I’m not a law man. I’m not in your position. I’m just an average American who sits here and looks at this stuff, and I think these people should go to jail. Do you think they’ve crossed the line of jail time possibly?
Sen. Paul: There are laws about already from the partial-birth abortion. There are laws saying you’re not supposed to manipulate the baby in order to harvest organs, and so that’s a question. The woman online when they ask her about it, she says oh yeah, there’s some laws, but that’s just for lawyers to figure it out that there are some laws. She doesn’t say partial-birth abortion, I think, in the video, but she admits that there are some laws. Yeah, that’s why it should be investigated. Really the question ought to be whether or not real consent is being obtained or is this occurring, the sale of the body organs occurring without really an adequate consent.
Glenn: Rand Paul, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Sen. Paul: Thanks, Glenn.