Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush continued his attack on Planned Parenthood on Tuesday during a town hall in Colorado, saying the women’s health organization shouldn’t get “a penny” because “they’re not doing women’s health issues” and that they were involved in something “way different than that.”
Jeb: "I don't think Planned Parenthood should actually get a penny because they're not doing women's health issues."
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) August 25, 2015
Bush says PP shouldn't get a penny "They're not actually doing women's health issues. They're involved in something way different than that"
— Ashley Killough (@KilloughCNN) August 25, 2015
The former Florida governor has gotten into hot water before over his comments about the women’s health organization. At an event put on by the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this month, Bush said he wanted to defund Planned Parenthood, saying, “I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s health issues.” But though that sounds extreme, his position isn’t that far out of line with most of the Republican field, almost all of whom have called for defunding Planned Parenthood.
Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, has taken a softer approach when talking about Planned Parenthood — saying that though he opposes abortion, Planned Parenthood is an organization that does “good things.” He said many conservative women have told him they support the organization’s work on women’s health care. “A lot of women are helped. So we have to look at the positives also for Planned Parenthood,” he said earlier this month.
But even though Trump has asserted that abortion should be separated from funding for Planned Parenthood — something already mandated by federal law — it is misguided to think that abortion is separate from other reproductive health care. The organization is also more popular than any of the candidates running for the Republican nomination, according to recent polling.