Politics

Cruz: Congress Should Honor Promise To Defund Planned Parenthood

(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Gage Cohen Contributor
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WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told The Daily Caller Tuesday that Congress needs to follow through on removing taxpayer funding from Planned Parenthood.

“We promised the voters we would do it, and I think we need to deliver on that promise,” Cruz told TheDC after a CNN-sponsored debate with Sen. Bernie Sanders on the Affordable Care Act at The George Washington University.

When pressed on a specific timeframe, Cruz simply said, “At this point … what I am urging President Trump, the administration and leaders in Congress is, let’s do what we said we would do. Let’s honor our commitments.”

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said multiple times that he would support defunding Planned Parenthood, the nation’s premier abortion provider.

“I would defund it if they are going [to continue] to do abortions,” he said when asked last year.

Republicans have repeatedly stated their intentions to remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood. They began a more forceful push to do so after pro-life group Center for Medical Progress published a series of videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood employees talking about purchasing baby body parts.

In January of this year, House Speaker Paul Ryan reaffirmed that Congress will be taking the necessary actions to defund the group.

Throughout the GOP primary, other candidates like Sen. Ted Cruz made defunding Planned Parenthood a key part of their platforms, taking firm pro-life stances and vowing to reduce unnecessary federal spending.

Cruz, during the Tuesday debate with Sanders, focused on the various problems with Obamacare and made it clear that Republicans in the House and Senate are working hard on a replacement plan to be put into place immediately after Obamacare’s full repeal.

Sanders discussed what he sees as the benefits of a government-run, single-payer health-care system similar to many found in Western Europe.

The debate lasted more than 90 minutes, with minimal interruptions from debate moderators Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Many on Twitter complemented both senators on a level of civility in the debate that had seemed missing from the presidential debates in 2016.