Gubernatorial Republican candidates were falling over themselves to declare their opposition to Planned Parenthood and detail their own efforts to defund the women’s health and abortion provider in their own states.
But not all were in favor of a brewing fiscal fight over shutting down the federal government over the issue.
“I defunded planned Parenthood Parenthood as governor of New Jersey,” Chris Christie said at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California during the GOP primary debate Wednesday night.
He wasn’t the only governor to leap to point out his actions to halt funds to the abortion and women’s health provider, which is in hot water over a series of undercover videos detailing negotiations over compensation and donation of aborted fetal body parts.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush also said he worked to defund the organization while he was governor of Florida.
John Kasich, the current governor of Ohio, said he supports defunding Planned Parenthood.
“In my state we are trying to figure out how to get it done,” he said.
But Kasich stopped short of saying he would shutter the federal government over the issue.
“There are ways to do it without having to shut the government down,” Kasich said.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz did not feel the same way.
“On these videos, Planned Parenthood essentially confesses to multiple felonies to sell the body parts of unborn children,” he said, noting that “absolutely we shouldn’t be sending $500 million of taxpayer money to fund an ongoing criminal enterprise.”
It is illegal under federal law to profit from the sale of fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood says it donates the tissue and only gets money to compensate for transportation and other related costs.
Cruz, currently third in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, has been among congressional conservatives who have vowed to vote against any spending bills that include funding for Planned Parenthood.
Kasich noted that such a plan was foolhardy since President Obama would certainly veto any defunding efforts and that Republicans would not succeed.
“I would not be shutting the government down because I don’t think it is going to work out,” he said.
