Rep. Gerry Connolly — who represents Virginia suburbs that rank among the wealthiest communities in America because they are populated with Washington bureaucrats, lobbyists and federal contractors — is a classic example of the modern American elitist.

Or to put it another way: He is a leftist ideologue on the public payroll.

When Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards testified in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee [last] week, Connolly fervently attempted to present himself as a champion of women.

He did this by forcefully advocating their literal destruction. And, yes, he seemed unaware of the irony.

In its latest annual report, Planned Parenthood revealed that it killed 327,653 unborn babies in its abortion clinics in fiscal 2013. It also stated that in the year that ended on June 30, 2014, it received $524.8 million — or 41 percent of its total funding — from the government. According to the Oversight Committee, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated Planned Parenthood gets about $450 million per year in federal funding.

Nor does Planned Parenthood deny — as revealed in a series of recently released videos — that it harvests tissue from some of the unborn babies it kills.

For Americans who respect innocent life, one obvious question is this: Why is Congress taking hard-earned money from American families struggling to raise their own children in a safe and decent environment and handing it over to a group that kills hundreds of thousands of babies per year and sometimes cuts out their organs?

In [last] week’s hearing, Gerry Connolly sought to replace this question with another: Why are conservatives waging a war against women?

“I hope every American woman is watching today’s hearing, because just the visuals as well as the audios tell you a lot,” Connolly said when he had his turn to question Richards.

“My colleagues like to say there is no war on women,” he said.

“Look at how you have been treated as a witness: Intimidation, talking over, interrupting, cutting off sentences, criticizing you because of your salary,” he said.

“‘How dare you!’” he said, presumably mimicking conservatives who questioned Richards. “Who do you think you are? Making a professional salary as the head of a premier national organization. And daring to actually make decisions as the head of that organization. Lord Almighty, what is America coming to!”

“The disrespect — the misogyny — rampant here today, tells us what is really going on here,” he said.

“This is about a conservative philosophy that says we are constitutionalists — that hold it up,” he said, still attempting to mock conservatives. “We believe in rugged individualism and personal liberty, with one big carve-out though. There’s an asterisk in that assertion, and that is: except when it comes to women controlling their own bodies and making their own health decisions.

"You would never know that the Constitution, according to the Supreme Court, guarantees a right of choice,” said Connolly.

In calendar 2013, according to the CDC, 1,049 male babies were born for each 1,000 female babies. That means approximately 48.8 percent of the babies born that year were girls and 51.2 percent were boys.

Assuming the 327,653 unborn babies Planned Parenthood killed in fiscal 2013 tracked the same male-female ratio as the babies born in calendar 2013, then Planned Parenthood would have aborted 159,895 baby girls and 167,758 baby boys.

That would mean Planned Parenthood killed about 438 unborn baby girls per day and 460 unborn baby boys.

The United States suffered 58,220 fatal military casualties during the war in Vietnam, according to the National Archives. Planned Parenthood’s one-year abortion total of 327,653 is about 5.6 times greater than the casualties this nation suffered in Vietnam.

Each life lost in Vietnam was precious. So, too, is each life lost in a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Planned Parenthood, right now, is waging a war against defenseless unborn girls and boys. It is denying these children their equal opportunity to enjoy what ought to be the blessings of being born in a nation founded on the principle that the right to life is God-given and unalienable.

When Rep. Gerry Connolly was mocking members of his committee for questioning Cecile Richards for her salary at a government-funded organization, he did not mention what that salary was. She did: It is $523,000 per year.

Thanks to Congress, if you pay taxes, you helped pay that salary.

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Originally published Wednesday, Sept. 30.