During Saturday night’s Republican presidential debate, businessman Donald Trump, who is running as a pro-life candidate, repeated a line that has had pro-life people concerned about his stance on taxpayer funding of the Planned Parenthood abortion company.
About the abortion business, Trump said he opposes taxpayer funding but added, “It does do wonderful things but not as it relates to abortion.”
Trump then added that “there are wonderful things having to do with women’s health” when it comes to Planned Parenthood, “but not when it comes to abortion.” (Video of his remarks appears below.)
While he had said he supports de-funding the abortion company if it refuses to stop doing abortions, Trump’s repeated comments that Planned arenthood does some “wonderful things” will raise eyebrows with pro-life voters. Trump’s comments unfortunately attempt to paint the abortion company with a positive brush — even though it’s been caught selling the body parts of aborted babies. Previously he has erroneously sided with the false claims that abortion is a “small part” of what Planned Parenthood does — even though most pregnant women who go to Planned Parenthood get abortions, not prenatal care or health care.
Conservative writer Katie Pavlich is concerned by Trump’s comments.
“Keep in mind Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards makes this same argument in order to keep $500 million in taxpayer funding each year,” she said. “The abortion giant repeatedly claims it only uses taxpayer money for women’s health, not for abortion, ignoring the fact that money is fungible. Trump made that argument for Planned Parenthood tonight from the Republican, pro-life debate stage.”
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“We have to help women,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in a December interview. “So we have to look at the positives, also, for Planned Parenthood.”
Then, Trump said he opposes federal grants going toward Planned Parenthood’s abortion practices, but noted that abortions make up a “small part” of the organization.
“There’s two Planned Parenthoods, in a way,” he said in that December interview. “You have it as an abortion clinic. Now that’s actually a fairly small part of what they do, but it’s a brutal part. And I’m totally against it and I wouldn’t do that. They also, however, service women.”
“Maybe unless they stop with the abortions, we don’t do the funding for the stuff that we want,” he said. “I’m totally against the abortion aspect of Planned Parenthood, but I’ve had many women, I’ve had many Republican, conservative women come up and say Planned Parenthood serves a good function, other than that one aspect.”
He told CNN earlier in the day in December that he would examine the Planned Parenthood’s practices to determine the “good aspects” that help women.
“I’m sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also,” he said. “But we have to take care of women.”
Trump appears worried he will be seen as anti-woman if she opposes Planned Parenthood funding — a nod to the effectiveness of the phony war on women attacks on pro-life groups and candidates who support de-funding the abortion company.
As far as Trump’s comments on Planned Parenthood funding are concerned, Trump has fairly consistently said he opposes taxpayer funding but he’s also made some remarks about the “good things” Planned Parenthood does that have alarmed pro-life voters — as if any “good thing” could make up for the fact that planned Parenthood kills 330,000 unborn babies s a year in abortions and then sells their body parts for profit.
Here are some of the headlines we’ve carried at LifeNews.com in recent months that provide further details on what Trump has said regarding Planned Parenthood funding:
