Chris Christie has repeatedly denied that he made the donation to the women’s health organization. | Getty Christie in damage-control mode over past talk of Planned Parenthood donation

Chris Christie has gone into damage control mode after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio began hammering him on his record with Planned Parenthood, pointing to comments from 1994 that say he made private donations to the organization.

''I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution and that should be the goal of any such agency, to find private donations, '' Christie is quoted as saying in an article posted on Nj.com that was originally written for the Star-Ledger.


''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, '' said Christie, who was running as a Republican in the Morris County freeholder race.

Christie, who now identifies as being against abortion rights, has said he changed his stance in 1995, one year after the article was written, after hearing his daughter’s heartbeat at 13 weeks.

He’s repeatedly denied that he made the donation to the women’s health organization. As recently as Friday morning Christie said the claim was inaccurate. The New Jersey governor told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts that he didn’t donate “not as a private citizen, governor or anything in between.”

The latest attempt to explain the past quote came after Rubio on Thursday night again blasted the New Jersey governor on the issue at the GOP debate. "Unfortunately, Gov. Christie has endorsed many of the ideas that Barack Obama supports, whether it is Common Core or gun control or the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor or the donation he made to Planned Parenthood,” Rubio said.

Christie fired back. “So let's set the facts straight. First of all, I didn't support Sonia Sotomayor. Secondly, I never wrote a check to Planned Parenthood,” he said.

He followed up on Friday morning, telling MSNBC, “You guys should really shred the Star-Ledger from now on … Whatever you read in the Star-Ledger about me, you should just take the opposite.”

But here’s where things get awkward: the article’s author, Brian T. Murray, is now a spokesman for Christie.

Murray was a reporter for The New Jersey Star-Ledger at the time when he quoted Christie. Murray now serves as a press secretary for Christie’s governor’s office. Murray declined to comment.

Rick Everett, who was an assistant managing editor at the Star-Ledger, was in charge of the paper’s local news coverage at the time the Murray story ran. Everett said he didn't remember any resistance to the quote back then.

“At the time, I supervised the local news coverage, and I don’t remember any blowback from running something that said Christie supported Planned Parenthood,” Everett said.

Christie’s campaign argues that his comment to Murray was part of a larger statement he was making about advocating against funding Planned Parenthood. Christie said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he was convinced it “was a misquote.”

“These are completely disingenuous attacks by Rubio. Gov. Christie is the first pro-life candidate elected statewide in New Jersey since Roe v. Wade and has vetoed funding for Planned Parenthood every year in office. When the time came for Rubio to do the same, he didn't even bother to show up to vote,” Christie campaign communications director Sam Smith said.

The donation record is difficult to corroborate because Planned Parenthood doesn’t provide donor records, but when asked about Christie’s record with the organization, it pointed POLITICO to a post on its website titled “Women won’t be celebrating Christie’s presidential announcement.” The post has an analysis of Christie’s policies related to women’s reproductive health.

"We protect the privacy of donors and don't provide information about whether someone has made a donation,” Eric Ferrero, vice president of Communications for Planned Parenthood Action Fund said in a statement emailed to POLITICO. "This entire line of questioning only underscores how far outside the mainstream all of the Republican candidates for president are on women's health and rights — advocating to ban abortion, take away insurance coverage for birth control, and block patients from getting preventive health care at Planned Parenthood.”

Planned Parenthood Action Fund has endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — the first endorsement the organization has made in its 100-year history.

Abortion rights have become a hot button issue in the 2016 campaign after a series of undercover videos released by anti-abortion rights group the Center for Medical Progress was released this summer purporting to reveal the illegal sale of fetal tissue for research.

Planned Parenthood denied any wrongdoing and said that the footage is heavily edited to be misleading. The organization just sued CMP on Thursday. But the sting videos set off a conservative push to cut off government funding of Planned Parenthood. Congress has cast votes eight times to defund the organization. The only measure that passed was part of a larger anti-Obamacare bill that President Barack Obama vetoed.

Ryan Hutchins contributed to this report.