(CNN) — House Republicans are scheduled to grill the president of Planned Parenthood on a series of undercover videos that have been at the center presidential debates, statehouse battles and the fight to keep the federal government open.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards is set to testify Tuesday morning before the House Oversight Committee. Richards and Planned Parenthood supporters have blasted the heavily edited videos — released throughout the summer and produced by conservative activists at the Center for Medical Progress — as inaccurate. But the videos have become potent tools for conservatives looking to end federal support for the group.
Richards, in written testimony, called the videos “a deliberate and systematic effort by (CMP director) David Daleiden and other opponents of safe and legal abortion to infiltrate our health centers, try to entrap our staff into potentially illegal conduct, and create discredited, doctored videos designed to smear Planned Parenthood.”
The undercover videos have been at the center of the latest effort by conservative Republicans to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood with the threat of shutting down the federal government. That effort failed in the Senate, but House lawmakers will decide Wednesday on whether to shut down the federal government, as part of the vote on another continuing resolution.
House Speaker John Boehner, who denounced conservative hardliners since he announced plans to resign next month, promised Sunday that he would work with Democrats to keep the government open.
Outside Washington, the videos have been one of the dominant issues from the campaign trail to state capitols.
Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert announced that he would no longer allow federal dollars to pass through the state to the group, spurring the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah to announce Monday that it was suing the state.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster launched an investigation of Planned Parenthood in July, shortly after the first video was released. But he said Monday that the probe “discovered no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility is selling fetal tissue,” according to Koster, a Democrat.
The videos were repeatedly referenced during both Republican presidential debates in recent weeks, as several 2016 hopefuls have urged their colleagues to defund the organization.
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