Hillary Clinton comes out in support of Planned Parenthood

Hillary Clinton is making her position on Planned Parenthood very clear: She is in full support of the organization.

“I’m proud to stand with Planned Parenthood, I’ll never stop fighting to protect the ability and right of every woman in this country to make her own health decisions,” Clinton said in a video released Monday.


The video is the strongest statement on the organization to date from the 2016 Democratic front-runner.

Planned Parenthood has been under fire since a series of undercover videos were released by an anti-abortion advocacy group over the past few weeks.

The videos show doctors and Planned Parenthood executives discussing fetal tissue donation. The Center for Medical Progress, the organization behind the videos, says the footage proves the organization illegally sells body parts; Planned Parenthood insists everything it does is legal.

Last week, Clinton called the videos “disturbing” but declined to elaborate, saying Planned Parenthood does “a lot of really good work for women.”

Planned Parenthood receives more than $500 million a year from the federal government and directs it to community health centers. On Monday, the Senate is scheduled to have a test vote to defund the organization. Many Republican candidates and lawmakers have come out against the organization.

“If this feels like a full-on assault on women’s health, that’s because it is,” Clinton said in the video. “When politicians talk about defunding Planned Parenthood, they’re talking about blocking millions of women, men and young people from live-saving preventive care.”

In the video, Clinton targets three GOP candidates by name: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Govs. Jeb Bush of Florida and Rick Perry of Texas.

“Unfortunately, these attacks aren’t new, they’re more of the same, we’ve seen them in Wisconsin where Gov. Walker defunded Planned Parenthood and left women across the state stranded with nowhere else to turn,” Clinton said. “We’ve seen them in Florida where Jeb Bush funneled millions of taxpayer dollars into abstinence-only programs while gutting funds for crucial family planning programs. And we’ve seen them in Texas where Gov. Perry drastically cut funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings and then signed legislation that forced health centers across the state to close their doors. .

“This is a change in tone from just last week when Hillary Clinton called the actions of Planned Parenthood ‘disturbing’ — which of course they are and Governor Bush has called on Congress to investigate these troubling practices,” said Allie Brandenburger, a spokeswoman for the Bush campaign. “Governor Bush has a track record to point to of protecting a culture of life while advocating for women’s health by supporting crisis pregnancy and women’s health centers while vetoing funding for Planned Parenthood.”

“When they attack women’s health, they attack America’s health and it’s wrong and we’re not going to let them get away with it,” she said.

The Center for Medical Progress could not immediately be reached for comment.