Rand Paul speaks at a Rally in support of defunding Planned Parenthood. Carson, Cruz and Paul rally against Planned Parenthood

Sen. Ted Cruz called on the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into the people who appear in undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue donation.

Cruz was speaking at an anti-abortion rally organized by Students for Life of America on Tuesday, just after activists released their third undercover video of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal body parts in graphic detail.


“How sad is it that almost no media observer thinks there is any chance the U.S. Department of Justice would actually investigate whether Planned Parenthood and these senior officials have violated federal criminal laws?” Cruz said. “Today, the Obama Justice Department is operating as little more than a partisan arm of the Democratic national committee.”

Cruz was one of three presidential candidates, along with Sen. Rand Paul and Dr. Ben Carson, who spoke at the event.

Paul announced that the Senate would vote to defund Planned Parenthood before August recess, though he did not give an exact date. Planned Parenthood, which receives more than $500 million each year in government funding, has denied any wrongdoing.

Carson cited his time as a physician and talked about all of the neurons firing off in a one-year-old baby’s brain.

“That is a very sophisticated organ, and the fact of the matter is it’s much more sophisticated than these little creatures that the environmental protection agency and others are trying to save, you know? Why don’t they spend their time and effort trying to save human life?” Carson said.

“I think that we have gradually slid in terms of our morals, to a point where we don’t really care about the killing of human beings,” Carson said. “That is the bad news. The good news is, I think we are changing.”

Carson cited the end of slavery as an instance when the United States had overcome injustice and lived up to the ideals put forth in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

“These words are meaningful today too because they talk about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Well guess what? There can be no liberty and pursuit of happiness if there is no life,” Carson said to roaring cheers.

Carson said the concept that a woman has the right to kill her child “is such a gross distortion of God’s original intent.”