Hillary Clinton Speaks Out on Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos – [Video]

At a campaign event in Greenville, South Carolina, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton defended Planned Parenthood, which has been criticized for the contents of two undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing selling organs and body parts from abortions.

This was the first time Clinton commented on the videos, over a week after they were first released.

Clinton told the crowd:

“I don’t have all of the facts, but Planned Parenthood has apologized for the insensitivity of the employee who was taped, and they will continue to answer questions for Congress and others.

“But for more than a century, Planned Parenthood has provided essential services for women, not just reproductive health services including affordable family planning, but cancer screenings and other health check ups.

“And I think it is unfortunate that Planned Parenthood has object of such a concerted attack for so many years.

And it is really an attack against a woman’s right to choose, to make the most personal difficult decisions any woman would face based on her faith and the medical advice that she’s given.”

She added:

“I’m hoping that this situation will not further undermine the very important services that Planned Parenthood provides throughout our country.”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards apologized for the tone of the employee in the first video, which was released Tuesday, July 14, but defended the practice, saying the video:

“falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation programs.”

Neither Planned Parenthood nor Hillary Clinton specifically addressed the second video, released Tuesday, July 21, which shows a different executive haggling over the price of the organs from an abortion:

Clinton won Planned Parenthood’s Margaret Sanger Award in 2009; and Jill June, the former president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, spoke at the candidate’s official 2016 Iowa campaign office opening.

The largest abortion provider in the country, Planned Parenthood received $528.4 million last year in taxpayer funding, according to the organizations’s 2013-2014 report.

The House Ways and Means Committee and the House Children and Families Committee are conducting a joint investigation into Planned Parenthood’s activities and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Wednesday that her office will review the information as well.