[caption id=”attachment_143913″ align=”aligncenter” width=”5184″] Republican presidential candidates from left, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and John Kasich take the stage for the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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Planned Parenthood and the controversy surrounding the undercover videos that show the organization harvesting fetal tissue of aborted babies was a hot topic on the stage at the first Republican presidential debate Thursday night.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) stressed his opposition to abortion, saying that he believes future generations will “call us barbarians for murdering millions of babies.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he is pro-life and touted his record in his home state.
“I believe that is an unborn child that’s in need of protection out there.. and I’ve said many a time that that unborn child can be protected and there are many other alternatives who will also protect the life of that mother. That’s been consistently proven. Unlike Hillary Clinton, who has a radical position– in terms of support for planned parenthood, I defunded planned parenthood more than four years ago, long before any of these videos came out. I’ve got a position that’s in line with every day America,” he said.
Walker signed a bill back in July that outlawed non-emergency abortions at or beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy, making it the 15th state with a 20-week abortion ban.
Moderator Megyn Kelly challenged former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on his stance on the issue.
She questioned why he had served on the board of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, which had given several million dollars in donations to Planned Parenthood.
“How could you not know about these well-publicized donations, and if you did know, how could you help a charity so committed to abortion rights?” Kelly asked.
“I joined the Bloomberg foundation because of Mike Bloomberg’s commitment to meaningful education reform. … Here’s my record: As governor of Florida I defunded Planned Parenthood. … We were the first state to do a “choose life” license plate,” Bush said.
“But did you know?” she pressed on the donations.
“No, I didn’t know,” Bush replied. “…My record as a pro-life governor is not in dispute. This is something that goes way beyond politics, and I hope we get to a point where we respect life in its fullest form.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he would take pro-life action much further than anyone else in the GOP field.
“A lot of people are talking about defunding Planned Parenthood as if that’s a big game-changer,” he said. “I think it’s time to do something even more bold. I think the next president ought to invoke the fifth and 14th amendments to the Constitution. Now that we clearly know that that baby inside the mother’s womb is a person at the moment of conception…It’s time that we recognize the Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being, and we change the policy to be pro-life and protect children instead of rip up their body parts and sell them like they’re parts to a Buick.”
