Ted Cruz and Donald Trump skirmished over taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood in last night’s Republican presidential debate. Cruz made the claim that Trump was a long-time supporter of abortion. Even though Trump has changed his mind and become pro-life, Cruz maintains that Trump supports taxpayer funding of the nation’s largest abortion business.
Here’s how the exchange went down:
CRUZ: “For most of his life, his policies have been very, very liberal. For most of his life he has described himself as very pro-choice, and as a supporter of partial-birth abortion. Right now, today, as a candidate, he supports federal taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. I disagree with him on that. That is a matter of principle—“
TRUMP: “You are the single biggest liar. You are probably worse than Jeb Bush. You are the single biggest liar. This guy lied— let me just tell you. This guy lied about Ben Carson when he took votes away from Ben Carson in Iowa. And he just continues. And today, we had robo calls sayi’ng, “Donald Trump is not going to run in South Carolina” where I’m leading by a lot. I’m not going to run. ‘Vote for Ted Cruz. This is the same thing he did to Ben Carson. This guy will say anything. Nasty guy. Now I know why he doesn’t have one endorsement from any of his colleagues.”
CRUZ: But let me say this – you notice Donald didn’t disagree with the substance that he supports taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. And Donald has this weird pattern, when you point to his own record he screams, “liar, liar, liar.” You want to go…
TRUMP: Where did I support it? Where did I…
CRUZ: You want to go…
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Again, where did I support it?
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CRUZ: If you want to watch the video, go to our website at Tedcruz.org.
TRUMP: Hey Ted, where did I support it?
CRUZ: You can see it out of Donald’s own mouth.
TRUMP: Where did I support?
CRUZ: You supported it when we were battling over defunding Planned Parenthood. You went on…
TRUMP: That’s a lot of lies.
CRUZ: You said, “Planned Parenthood does wonderful things and we should not defund it.”
TRUMP: It does do wonderful things but not as it relates to abortion.
CRUZ: So I’ll tell you what…
TRUMP: Excuse me. Excuse me, there are wonderful things having to do with women’s health.
CRUZ: You see you and I…
TRUMP: But not when it comes to abortion.
CRUZ: Don, the reason principle matters. The reason principle matters sadly was illustrated by the first questions today.
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:
