Biden awards highest civilian honor to 'merchant of death' who oversaw nearly 4 million abortions



President Joe Biden, whom Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the Archdiocese of Washington deemed a "cafeteria Catholic" on Easter Sunday, has awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to Cecile Richards, a woman who made millions of dollars helping snuff out millions of American lives.

Pro-life critics have suggested a society that valued life would arrest, not award, Richards.

"With absolute courage, she fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are — a nation of freedom," wrote Biden. "Through her work to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women's reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote, she has carved an inspiring legacy."

'We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver.'

According to the White House, the award is "presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors."

Richards, the daughter of the late Democratic Texas Gov. Ann Richards and a former deputy chief of staff for Nancy Pelosi, served from 2006 to 2018 as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America — an organization founded by the infamous eugenicist Margaret Sanger, who stressed the need to "apply a stern and rigid policy of sterilization, and segregation to that grade of population whose progeny is already tainted or whose inheritance is such that objectionable traits may be transmitted to offspring."

The abortion tallies in Planned Parenthood's annual reports indicate that under Richards' leadership, the organization slaughtered over 3.87 million babies. In her final year, when the organization killed 332,757 babies, Richards' salary was $1,033,274, having fallen short of seven figures the previous fiscal year by roughly $42,000.

The organization under Richards reportedly created the super PAC Planned Parenthood Votes and expanded its lobbying arm, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, lining the coffers of Democratic lawmakers on the one hand and pushing for increased access and federal funding to abortion services on the other.

Leftists have also credited Richards with seeing the organization through the scandal that arose over pro-life citizen journalist and Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden's undercover videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials callously talking about butchering, playing with, and trafficking baby parts.

The CMP posted a video on July 14, 2015, showing a senior director of medical services at Planned Parenthood, Deborah Nucatola, state matter-of-factly over wine and lunch, "We've been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that 'I'm not gonna crush that part, I'm gonna basically crush below, I'm gonna crush above, and I'm gonna see if I can get it all intact.'"

"I'd say a lot of people want liver. And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they'll know where they're putting their forceps," continued Nucatola. "The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is calvarium. Calvarium — the head — is basically the biggest part."

Richards stressed in the aftermath of the video's release, "Our donation programs — like any other high-quality health care providers' — follow all laws and ethical guidelines," reported the New York Times.

After 12 years making money off death and sterilizations, Richards co-founded Supermajority, a leftist female-led PAC that quickly netted millions of dollars from George Soros.

Richards was diagnosed in 2023 with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain tumor with an average survival time of just over a year.

'Scary place to be.'

"Cecile Richards presided over the abortions of 3.9 million babies as president of Planned Parenthood," tweeted Live Action president Lila Rose. "She belongs in jail. Not in the White House receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

"She is literally a merchant of death," wrote Dan McLaughlin of National Review. "Hard to think of a living person who has killed more Americans."

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro noted, "Her legacy is millions of dead unborn children."

'This honor marks a dark chapter in the late stages of one of the darkest presidencies in American history.'

Kristan Hawkins, presidents of Students for Life, tweeted that with Richards at the helm, some of Planned Parenthood's victims' bodies were "dissected and sold to the highest bidder. Planned Parenthood representatives haggled over prices for livers and brains. Planned Parenthood’s abortions skyrocketed under Richards even as the organization’s number of total clients plummeted year after year. Cecile Richards is anything but honorable. What a disgrace."

Pro-Life Wisconsin pointed out that "ironically, the babies aborted under Cecile Richards' watch will never have freedom. Their rights were stripped as they were killed in ... what should have been the greatest place of safety — their mother's womb."

Edward Feser, a Catholic professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College, suggested Biden conferring the medal upon Richards showed his true colors: "The 'personally opposed, but …' Catholic Democrat line on abortion was always rank dishonesty, but to commend a ghoul like this is to drop even pretense. Biden's effectively using the last days of whatever cognitive clarity he has left to destroy his conscience. Scary place to be."

Blaze News previously reported that Cardinal Raymond Burke, a canon lawyer and former prefect of the Catholic Church's highest court, said in 2020 that Biden "is not a Catholic in good standing and he should not approach to receive Holy Communion."

"This is not a political statement," continued Burke. "I don't intend to get involved in recommending any candidate for office, but simply to state that a Catholic may not support abortion in any shape or form because it is one of the most grievous sins against human life and has always been considered to be intrinsically evil and therefore to in any way support act is a mortal sin."

Biden reiterated that he is a "practicing Catholic."

"This honor marks a dark chapter in the late stages of one of the darkest presidencies in American history when it comes to protecting mothers and unborn children," Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, told the Washington Times. "Planned Parenthood has used billions of taxpayer dollars to profit from the tragic extermination of millions of children, while exploiting the health and well-being of countless women."

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Putin's 'Merchant of Death,' who was exchanged for Brittney Griner, reportedly selling weapons to Iran-backed Houthis



Viktor Bout — the infamous Russian arms dealer released in an eyebrow-raising prisoner exchange for Brittney Griner — is now selling arms to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, according to a new report.

In December 2022, the Biden administration made a deal with Russia to exchange Bout for Griner.

Powerful weapons such as Kornet anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons could also be part of the alleged arms deal.

Griner is a basketball player in the WNBA.

In February 2022, Griner was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow, Russia. Griner was accused of possessing cannabis, which is illegal in Russia. She admitted to the crime but claimed it was an "honest mistake." In August 2022, Griner was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Before her arrest in Russia, Griner made headlines for proclaiming that the national anthem shouldn't be played before sports games. She purposely stayed in the locker room when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played before Phoenix Mercury games in 2020.

As Blaze News previously reported, Griner sang a different tune after being released and said in 2023: "Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different."

Bout – who is known as the "Merchant of Death" – is one of the most notorious arms dealers in the world. Bout has been an international weapons trafficker since the 1990s and has been linked to arms being dealt to Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya, and multiple conflicts in Africa.

In 2008, a U.S. sting operation led to Bout being arrested in Thailand after he allegedly offered to supply anti-aircraft missiles to Colombian guerrillas to shoot down American aircraft. In 2011, the Merchant of Death was convicted of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, conspiring to kill U.S. officers and employees, conspiring to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, and conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. At the time of his release, Bout had served 12 years of his 25-year sentence.

In the 2005 movie “Lord of War,” Nicolas Cage's character is loosely based on Bout.

Since the time of the controversial prison swap, Bout joined the pro-Kremlin, far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In 2023, Bout won a seat in a local assembly.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bout is back in the arms-dealing business.

According to the report, Bout is working on a deal to send small arms to Houthi militants in Yemen.

Citing a European security official and other people familiar with the matter, the WSJ reported that Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the sale of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, where "they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout."

The first two deliveries would reportedly comprise mostly of an upgraded version of the AK-47 assault rifle and could start as early as this month. The shipment would allegedly be transported to the western Yemeni port of Hodeidah under the cover of food supplies. However, more powerful weapons such as Kornet anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons could also be part of the alleged arms deal.

Bout called the claim an “unsubstantiated accusation.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the WSJ article, "We are inclined to categorize it as fake news or an information attack on our elected representatives."

Steve Zissou, a New York attorney who represented Bout in the U.S., compared the rumored weapons deal to America's shipments of weapons to enemies of Russia.

"Viktor Bout has not been in the transportation business for over twenty years," Zissou told the Wall Street Journal. "But if the Russian government authorized him to facilitate the transfer of arms to one of America’s adversaries, it would be no different than the U.S. government sending arms and weapons of mass destruction to one of Russia’s adversaries as it has sent to Ukraine."

The Houthi slogan is: “God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.”

President Donald Trump’s administration designated the Houthis as global terrorists and a foreign terrorist organization in one of his last acts as president in January 2021. However, President Joe Biden reversed the decision a month later. The Biden administration changed course in January when Biden's State Department classified the Houthis as a "specially designated global terrorist group."

The U.S. Department of Defense declared in June, "The continued reckless behavior by Iran-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."

The Yemen-based Houthis struck two cargo ships that required the vessel's crew to have to be rescued in June.

Since the Israel-Hamas War began last October, Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones.

On Friday, the U.S. military struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen, according to U.S. officials.

Houthi rebels launched two drones and fired more than a half dozen ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles at three American ships traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but all were intercepted by Navy destroyers, the Associated Press reported.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck analyzed a video clip from Bout's first interview as a free man in decades.

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