The 8 Dumbest Quotes About Planned Parenthood

With a presidential campaign inevitably comes a lot of cheap shots to appeal to voters. And for 2016, one of those targets has been Planned Parenthood, the nonprofit organization that provides much-needed health services to women, but has become synonymous with the issue of abortion. And president Cecile Richards isn't happy with GOP candidates attacking Planned Parenthood for the sake of their own campaigns.

Richards took to Twitter on Wednesday, saying, "GOP leaders, including most of the '16 field, are tripping over themselves to attack PP because they think that's how to win elections." She was intent on expressing her disapproval with the current crop of Republican candidates running for president. Richards also said, "Spreading false information is an age-old strategy of people hell-bent on denying women care & shaming them for exercising their rights."

And though Planned Parenthood has not made an official endorsement for the 2016 race, it's clear who Richards supports at the moment. She tweeted, "Truth. 'We don't need any more politicians who shame and blame women for making our own reproductive health decisions.' @HillaryClinton"

It's not hard to figure out which candidates Richards and Planned Parenthood might oppose. She is correct in saying that some GOP candidates delight in publicly disapproving of Planned Parenthood, and the recent anti-abortion video that wrongfully insinuates that the organization profits off the sale of fetal organs has only given them more fodder. Here are eight people who want your vote for president, but have made some pretty horrible statements about Planned Parenthood:

Scott Walker

Years ago, when I first became governor of the state of Wisconsin, my first budget, I defunded Planned Parenthood. I took some attacks from some in the media, and some in the left. But this video’s just a prime example, this is not a noncontroversial entity. This is obviously a disturbing, disgusting act that they’re talking about. We’ve outlawed that in Wisconsin in the past. We need to be defunding Planned Parenthood, not only state by state, but I think, across the country.

Walker has no shortage of quotes on why defunding Planned Parenthood is a must, including this one from a Fox News interview. Even if Walker wants to judge some women for going through with a "disturbing, disgusting act," the act of defunding Planned Parenthood would leave many low-income women without access to necessary services, such as breast exams and STD testing.

Marco Rubio

I am sickened by the complete disregard for innocent unborn life evident at Planned Parenthood. I’m proud that one of my first actions in the Senate was voting to defund this organization.

Rubio made this statement to Politico, and it seems like he has a complete disregard for the life of the mother. According to Planned Parenthood, Rubio has worked to allow health care providers the right to deny emergency contraception, block women from going to Planned Parenthood, and allow employers to deny birth control insurance coverage.

Ted Cruz

On tape, it appears a Planned Parenthood official is admitting to multiple felonies. The U.S. Department of Justice, if it was not simply a partisan arm of the DNC, should open an investigation and prosecute Planned Parenthood. Congress should hold hearings and we should cut off funds.

Cruz was especially strategic in this statement. He got in his shot at both Planned Parenthood and Democrats.

Bobby Jindal

Today's video of a Planned Parenthood official discussing the systematic harvesting and trafficking of human body parts is shocking and gruesome. This same organization is seeking to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans. I have instructed Louisiana's Department of Health and Hospitals to conduct an immediate investigation into this alleged evil and illegal activity and to not issue any licenses until this investigation is complete.

Jindal released this statement on his investigation of Planned Parenthood after the release of the aforementioned anti-abortion video. Planned Parenthood has said that the video was highly edited and contained misleading information. A report by Media Matters reveals that there are 150 minutes of additional footage in the video that explained that Planned Parenthood does not profit off the sale of fetal organs.

Carly Fiorina

I am proudly pro-life. I believe that every human life has potential and that every human life is precious. This latest news is tragic and outrageous. This isn't about "choice." It's about profiting on the death of the unborn while telling women it's about empowerment.

Fiorina posted this on her Facebook along with a news story that reported the Planned Parenthood scandal. Once again: No one profited off of donated tissue. Saying that Planned Parenthood is "telling women it's about empowerment" in this way is like saying that women don't need any more ideas in their pretty little heads. We're not sheep.

Ben Carson

This tweet is among Carson's radical statements about abortion. He has compared it to slavery (saying that pro-life advocates are akin to abolitionists) and to pagan human sacrifices.

Rick Santorum

If you want to scrub all racism from America, let’s start with Planned Parenthood because it was started by a racist named Margaret Sanger.

Because Planned Parenthood is clearly the reason racism still exists, and not the ignorance of U.S. citizens, right? These Margaret Sanger quotes were taken out of context, according to New York University. When she wanted to distribute birth control to the African-American community, she wrote in a letter that she didn't want word to get out that the group wanted to exterminate the population. Scholars argue that this statement was Sanger correctly predicting that people would think she was trying to implement eugenics (but she wasn't, obviously). Martin Luther King Jr. even praised her for her commitment to family planning.

Rick Perry

The video showing a Planned Parenthood employee selling the body parts of aborted children is a disturbing reminder of the organization's penchant for profiting off the tragedy of a destroyed human life.

It would be nice if politicians would do their research or look at the raw footage before making these kinds of claims. Unfortunately, that's not the kind of world we live in.

Images: Getty Images (7)