Planned Parenthood urged other Republican presidential hopefuls Tuesday to be more like Donald Trump after he defended the group from calls to defund it.
“Donald Trump seems to have realized that banning all abortions, shutting down the government, and defunding Planned Parenthood are extreme positions that are way too far outside the mainstream for even him to take,” Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
When undercover videos began surfacing July 14 a national debate was sparked on whether federal dollars should keep going to the group. The first video showed an employee casually discussing how Planned Parenthood harvests fetal organs after an abortion.
“We hope that the rest of the GOP field will wake up and reconsider their extreme and unpopular positions on defunding preventive care, abortion bans,” Ferrero continued. “And the other economic issues that women and their families care about.”
Trump defended the group Tuesday while speaking with CNN host Chris Cuomo. He argued that though federal dollars shouldn’t go to pay for abortions, that doesn’t mean other services should necessarily be defunded.
“The problem that I have with Planned Parenthood is the abortion situation,” Trump said. “I would also look, because I’m sure they do some things properly and good and that are good for women, and I would look at that, and I would look at other aspects also. But we have to take care of women.”
The position falls in contrast to some of his Republicans rivals who want to defund the group completely. Since the incident Planned Parenthood has argued that federal dollars aren’t even going to abortions anyways. Last month, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Rand Paul introduced an amendment to cut off federal support to the group. His primary rivals Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have also condemned the videos.
The footage was obtained by the Center for Medical Progress as part of a three-year investigative effort. The employee talked to undercover actors she thought were buyers from a human biologics company.
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