For years, and even recently, Hillary Clinton has been a proponent of Planned Parenthood, the nations largest abortion provider. She has received awards from the group and spoken on their behalf for her entire political career up to this point. However, within the past couple days, her tone has changed amid numerous undercover videos allegedly showing the group discussing the illegal sale of fetal body parts for profit.
Report from ABC News:
Hillary Clinton has staunchly defended Planned Parenthood in the wake of recently released videos that an anti-abortion group claims to show employees with the organization discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue.
But, in a new interview, she calls the graphic videos “disturbing” and says there should be a national investigation into that practice.
“I have seen pictures from them and obviously find them disturbing,” the Democratic presidential candidate told the New Hampshire Union Leader on Tuesday in regards to the videos, which were released by the anti-abortion group Center for Medical Progress. “Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions.” [Emphasis added]
Clinton, however, did not waver in her overall support of the organization, and said there are two points to make: “One, Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services. And this raises not questions about Planned Parenthood so much as it raises questions about the whole process, that is, not just involving Planned Parenthood, but many institutions in our country.”
Clinton added that if there’s going to be a congressional inquiry into the videos, “it should look at everything,” and not just one organization.
Clinton made the remark on the same day the Center for Medical Progress released a third video which it says shows the harvesting of fetal tissue, as well as current and former Planned Parenthood employees discussing the procedures and pricing.
Several Republicans — including many GOP presidential candidates — have cited these videos as a reason why Planned Parenthood should lose federal funding. And Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul has called for Clinton to return the group’s donations to her campaign.
Nearly all of the Republican candidates have been discussing this for weeks now, however, since Hillary decided to chime in, it has become a bi-partisan issue spanning both sides of the presidential field.
