TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday he never made a donation to Planned Parenthood, despite public comments he made in the mid-1990s as a county freeholder candidate suggesting he had.

Christie, in a taped interview that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation," rejected criticism from Republican presidential rival Marco Rubio that he had supported an organization that has been a lightning rod issue for Republican voters for decades.

"When a super PAC running an ad said that you supported Common Core, you once supported an assault weapons ban, and that you donated to Planned Parenthood. Which one of those is wrong?" host John Dickerson asked Christie, referring to a scathing attack ad from a pro-Rubio group.

(Later in the broadcast, Dickerson clarified that the Planned Parenthood assertion wasn't part of the ad but that Rubio had said it. As part of a riff against Christie on a number of subjects last week, Rubio said: "He made a personal contribution to Planned Parenthood.")

In response to the question, Christie said: "Well I never donated to Planned Parenthood, so that's wrong."

"So, just on the Planned Parenthood," Dickerson pressed. "Never donated, never supported?"

"No. No," Christie said.

However, the governor's statement doesn't fit with what he had to say in 1994 while a candidate for county office.

"I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution and that should be the goal of any such agency, to find private donations," Christie was quoted saying in The Star-Ledger on Sept. 30, 1994. "It's also no secret that I am pro-choice. ... But you have to examine all the agencies needing county donations and prioritize them. I would consider all groups looking for funding, but there is a limit and we have to pick and choose."

In the article, which was also referenced in the 2012 book "Chris Christie: The Inside Story of His Rise to Power," Democratic freeholder candidates pressed their GOP counterparts on restoring cuts the board made to Planned Parenthood of Greater Northern New Jersey in 1989.

Another Republican freeholder in the election, Joan Bramhall, sided with Christie in the debate, declaring "I am pro-choice," but opposing county funds going to Planned Parenthood on the basis of budgetary constraints, according to the published report.

Christie ultimately won that county freeholder election.

As governor, Christie continually cited budgetary constraints as the reason for cutting Planned Parenthood funding from the state budget. But that changed in February, when he touted defunding Planned Parenthood at the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington and tied the discussion to the issue of abortions.

Gov. Chris Christie.

Christie's presidential campaign denied Sunday the governor ever donated to Planned Parenthood, noting there's no record of such a donation.

"The governor did not donate to Planned Parenthood," said spokeswoman Samantha Smith in an e-mail.

Christie would say years later that he "had been pro-choice before" hearing the heartbeat of his unborn daughter back in 1995, which "had a profound effect" on him and changed his beliefs on the issue.

The Star-Ledger reporter who wrote the 1994 article, Brian Murray, currently works as a spokesman for Christie in the governor's office.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook.