Jeb Bush seems just as intellectually awkward as his brother
Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush has jumped onto the ‘defund Planned Parenthood’ bandwagon. He appeared at an event hosted by the Southern Baptist Convention where he said something strikingly unthoughtful.
Referencing the deceptive heavily edited videos showing Planned Parenthood doctors discussing fetal tissue deliveries, Jeb Bush was asked if they should be denied further funding. Jeb Bush said that the next president should defund Planned Parenthood. He then went on to make one of his most willfully ignorant statements to date.
“You could take dollar for dollar,” Jeb Bush said. “Although I am not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women health issues. But if you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations that exist, federally sponsored community health organizations to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues.”
Spoken like a privileged man unconcerned about the real plight of women given his adoption of an ideology that hurts women. Jeb Bush fails to understand that the reasons Republican, Independent, Democratic, and other women get their female health services from Planned Parenthood is because it is generally the only place capable of satisfying the needs of these women at no cost or at a cost they can afford.
Many attempt to concentrate the Planned Parenthood debate on abortion. The fact is that Planned Parenthood uses no tax payer dollars, no government funds for abortions. Moreover only 3% of its services are abortion related. Jeb Bush should consider informing himself on the services offered by Planned Parenthood before jumping onto a flawed ideological train wreck.
The LA Times reports that Jeb Bush said he misspoke soon after.
As Democrats pounced on the statement, Bush quickly said he misspoke and was referring only to the $500 million in federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
“With regards to women’s health funding broadly, I misspoke, as there are countless community health centers, rural clinics, and other women’s health organizations that need to be fully funded. They provide critical services to all, but particularly low-income women who don’t have the access they need,” Bush said in a statement.
Sadly, the same Republicans that deny their citizens or would deny their citizens health care by repealing Obamacare or refusing the Medicaid Expansion to Obamacare, are the same ones wanting to defund the only options many women have. The Republican War on Women continues.