Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul, R-Ky., argued Thursday that the GOP should send a government funding bill to President Obama’s desk without any money for Planned Parenthood, and let Democrats dare to shut down the government.
“If the Democrats want to shut down government over this, then it goes to Democrats,” Paul said at a Capitol Hill rally. “The Democrats want to shut down government, we should point the finger and say, ‘If you want to shut down the government over spending money on harvesting organs from babies, so be it,’ but we will take a stand.”
“I, for one, will take a stand. I have never voted for any funds for Planned Parenthood and I never will,” said Paul, who is number 10 in the Washington Examiner’s power rankings, to applause.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said Republicans don’t have the votes to defund Planned Parenthood, but Paul said McConnell is getting it “exactly wrong.”
“Now some are saying we don’t have enough votes. We don’t have enough votes to defund Planned Parenthood,” said Paul. “That gets it exactly wrong. You have to fund Planned Parenthood. You have to have 60 votes to affirmatively fund Planned Parenthood.”
“So don’t accept the notion that we have to get to 60,” he continued. “The other side has to get to 60. The other side has to find 60 votes to fund Planned Parenthood. This is not a problem – they do not have 60 votes to fund Planned Parenthood – as long as we separate the bills and tell them ‘You go out and find 60 votes to fund Planned Parenthood.'”
Referencing the undercover videos that show high-level Planned Parenthood executives haggling prices for fetal organ parts, Paul said, “there has never been a better time” to defund the abortion provider. Past Republican efforts to defund the group have been unsuccessful, but Paul believes that the videos have changed that.
“These horrific videos are making the country rethink this,” he said. “At the very least, I think the country is coming around to believing that we shouldn’t be doing this to fully formed babies.”
Planned Parenthood currently receives more than $500 million in taxpayer funding, and Paul said unequivocally that he will not vote for any spending bills that have money going to Planned Parenthood.
“What we need is leadership in Washington – we should demand nothing less than a separate vote; we should hold our ground,” said Paul. “Not one penny more for Planned Parenthood.”
“As a physician, I’ve examined babies that were less than two pounds – sometimes close to one pound – and as I look into the eyes of these small babies, I ask myself: ‘How can a baby that’s five or six pounds, that’s still in the womb, not have any rights?'”
“We say that a one pound baby has rights in the neonatal nursery, as they should; but how can we say a five and six pound baby has no rights?” asked Paul. “I had this debate with [Democratic National Committee Chairwoman] Debbie Wasserman Schultz and she was asked the question: ‘When does a baby have rights?’ and she said, ‘That’s a private matter.'”
“Well you know what, when you got a five, six pound baby, it’s no longer a private matter,” said Paul. “When you got Planned Parenthood turning the baby around so they can get access to the baby’s organs and sell those, that’s no longer a private matter.”
“When you have a group like Planned Parenthood that we are giving taxpayer dollars to, that’s no longer a private matter,” said Paul.
