Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson have called the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic that left three dead 'domestic terrorism' and a 'hate crime'.

The two pro-life GOP candidates were the only two among the presidential field to say that the attack was fueled by anti-abortion ideology - while Carly Fiorina was at the other end of the spectrum, complaining that the murders were being used to 'demonize' the pro-life movement.

Witnesses believe Robert Dear, 57, was motivated by his opposition to abortion and was heard saying 'no more baby parts' to law enforcement officials after killing three at the clinic in Colorado Springs.

Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson have called the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic that left three dead 'domestic terrorism' and a 'hate crime (pictured last week in Iowa)

Fellow candidate Carly Fiorina (pictured earlier this month) has said claims that the murders were related to anti-abortion rhetoric amounted to 'typical left-wing tactics'

Robert Lewis Dear, 57 (pictured in his mug shots), reportedly made statements to law enforcement officers about Barack Obama and comments such as ‘no more baby parts’ in reference to Planned Parenthood

Colorado Springs police captured Dear, above, after he allegedly opened fire at the Colorado Springs clinic early Friday afternoon and killed a police officer and two civilians

Donald Trump called the shooter an 'extremist' who was a 'mentally disturbed person' during a Meet the Press interview on Sunday.

Trump then went on to say that a lot of people were 'very unhappy' with Planned Parenthood.

'I will tell you, there is a tremendous group of people that think it's terrible, all of the videos that they've seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you're selling parts to a car.'

In July anti-abortion activists released undercover video they alleged showed the organization's personnel negotiating the sale of fetal organs.

Planned Parenthood has denied seeking any payments beyond legally permitted reimbursement costs for donating the organs to researchers and argued the videos were 'deceptively edited'.

In October a GOP House committee found no evidence of wrongdoing by the organization regarding its use of federal funds.

But a number of the Republican presidential candidates called for Planned Parenthood to be defunded after the video's release, including in the televised debates.

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains president Vicki Cowart said the violence seen on Friday had been bred by an 'alarming increase in hateful rhetoric and smear campaigns' against abortion providers.

A wave of demonstrations in support of the organization swept across the nation on Saturday

The officer who was shot was identified as 44-year-old Garrett Swasey (pictured), a six-year veteran of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Police

Swasey pictured with his wife Rachel, who is a nurse, and their two children, Faith, six, and Elijah, ten

Carly Fiorina called the Planned Parenthood shooter a 'protester' but said such claims that the murders were related to anti-abortion rhetoric amounted to 'typical left-wing tactics'.

'This is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing a messenger because they don't agree with the message,' she said on Fox News Sunday.

'The vast majority of Americans agree what Planned Parenthood is doing is wrong,' she then claimed.

Two months after anti-abortion group the Center for Medical Progress' video was released, 60 percent of Americans said the congressional budget agreement must continue funding Planned Parenthood, a national poll by the Pew Research Center found.

Fiorina claimed during the second Republican debate that she had seen a video in which a 'fully formed fetus' was seen on a table with 'its legs kicking' while someone could be heard saying 'we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain'.

No such video was ever found to exist and Fiorina's camp was unable to produce it after questions of authenticity were raised.

Planned Parenthood executive vice president Dawn Laguens has since hit back at politicians refusing to connect their anti-abortion rhetoric with Friday's shooting.

Jennifer Markovsky, 36 (pictured), of Honolulu, Hawaii, was one of three victims who was fatally shot after a gunman opened fire in a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood on Friday

Markovsky (seen in Facebook photos), who has a daughter and son, was at the clinic supporting a friend through a procedure when she was killed

'It is offensive and outrageous that some politicians are now claiming this tragedy has nothing to do with the toxic environment they helped create,' she said in a statement on Sunday.

'One of the lessons of this awful tragedy is that words matter, and hateful rhetoric fuels violence.'

'It's not enough to denounce the tragedy without also denouncing the poisonous rhetoric that fueled it.'

Ben Carson called on both sides of the abortion debate to 'tone down their rhetoric'.

'There's a lot of extremism coming from all areas,' he said on ABC's This Week.

'We get into our separate corners and we hate each other, we want to destroy those with whom we disagree.'

'If we can get rid of the rhetoric from either side and actually talk about the facts, I think that's when we begin to make progress.'

'And, you know, a lot of people, when they don't have facts, when they don't have a good backup, that's when the rhetoric starts. That's when the name-calling starts.'

Mike Huckabee said the shooting was an act of 'domestic terrorism', but also continued to criticize Planned Parenthood as he claimed no pro-life leader had 'suggested violence' toward the health provider.

Army veteran and father-of-two Ke'Arre M Stewart, 29, of Waco, Texas, who has been named as a victim of Friday's shooting on Sunday

'There is no excuse for killing other people whether it's happening inside the Planned Parenthood headquarters, inside their clinics where millions of babies die, or whether it's people attacking Planned Parenthood,' he said during an interview on CNN.

'I don't know of anybody who has suggested violence toward Planned Parenthood personnel or some act of violence towards their clinics. I've not heard that, not from one single pro-life person.'

Fellow GOP presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and John Kasich did not mention Planned Parenthood in their statements as they tweeted their prayers to the victims in Colorado Springs.

Meanwhile Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio did not release any statement following the shooting, both most recently tweeting about football games.

Marco Rubio has been an outspoken critic of abortion, including in the case of rape and incest.

Rubio claimed during a September interview with KCCI 8 News that Planned Parenthood pushed women into abortions so that fetal tissues could be harvested and said it gave people an incentive to 'look forward to having more abortions'.

He also told TMZ people should be more 'fired up' about the Planned Parenthood videos.

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders tweeted their support for Planned Parenthood following the shootings.

'Women's bodies are not battlefields, neither is our town': A poignant sign inside a church in Colorado Springs on Saturday as a vigil was held

Vigil attendees hold hands during a ceremony on Saturday to mark Friday's shooting at Planned Parenthood

Clinton and O'Malley tweeted that they 'stand with PP' while Sanders wrote that he hoped people 'realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences.'

Attorney General Lorretta Lynch also released a statement on Saturday, describing the attack as 'not only a crime against the Colorado Springs community, but a crime against women receiving healthcare services at Planned Parenthood, law enforcement seeking to protect and serve, and other innocent people'.

This was backed up by the local Planned Parenthood branch, which said the shooting was 'motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion'.

Police are yet to confirm the motive for the shooting, but there is a possibility Dear could be charged with federal hate crimes.

A wave of demonstrations in support of the organization swept across the nation on Saturday, with demonstrations and candlelit vigils in Colorado and New York.

Dear is due to be arraigned on Monday over the three deaths at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.

The 6ft 4in divorcee is accused of murdering six-year police veteran and 44-year-old part-time pastor Garrett Swasey.

People gathered on Saturday to honor the three people who were killed in the attack, including a University of Colorado Colorado Springs police officer, Garrett Swasey

Mourners attend a vigil held on the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs' campus for those killed in Friday's deadly shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic

On Sunday it was revealed Jennifer Markovsky, 36, of Honolulu, and Ke’Arre M Stewart, 29, of Waco, Texas, were the two civilian victims killed in the attack.

Dear was reported to have had an assault rifle, possibly an AK-47.

Since the shooting, the Colorado Springs community has banded together to hold vigils for the victims of Friday’s attack.

Community members filled All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church and moments of silence were held during several city events.

One man brought a sign to the church that read: ‘Women’s bodies are not battlefields. Neither is our town.'

Meanwhile a candlelit vigil was held at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus and a pro-abortion rally was held in Union Square, New York.

Pregnant model Chrissy Teigen led a wave of support for the organization on Saturday.

'Every time s*** like this happens, john and I immediately make another donation to planned parenthood,' she wrote, tweeting a link for fans to donate to the organization.

Speaking out: Chrissy Teigen shared a link where followers can donate to the family planning and women's health charity - sparking a barrage of anger from users on Twitter

'John' refers to her husband, John Legend.

Dear moved from North Carolina to Colorado and set up home in an area where people 'like to be by themselves'.

Sources told NBC that nothing apparent, such a felony conviction or mental illness, would have disqualified him from purchasing an AK-47 style rifle.

But public records from South Carolina show that he was charged with cruelty to animals for an incident where he shot a dog and charged with being a peeping tom, eavesdropping or peeping in 2002 for an incident after 'making unwanted advancements' towards a woman and being seen in the bushes by her house.

He was found not guilty of the first charge and the second was dismissed, though a restraining order was issued in the case.

In 1997 his then wife also called police for a domestic violence evidence where she says he locked her out of their house and pushed her out a window when she entered.

She did not press charges.

The cabin in the woods of North Carolina where Dear used to live, and which has no running water and no electricity. A neighbor said that the suspect mostly kept to himself



