Bush says he ‘misspoke’ at SBC event

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BNG)—Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign quickly back-tracked from comments he made at a Southern Baptist Convention missions conference, where he said half a billion dollars of taxpayer money is too much to spend on women’s health issues.

Democrats jumped on the former Florida governor’s off-the-cuff answer to a question from SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore about recent videos purportedly linking Planned Parenthood to the sale of fetal tissue.

“Given the atrocity of these children being destroyed with such callous disregard for their lives, shouldn’t we make that an issue and say not one more red cent to Planned Parenthood?” Moore asked Bush in an interview at the Send North America Conference Aug. 3-4 in Nashville, Tenn.

‘The next president should defund Planned Parenthood’

“We should, and the next president should defund Planned Parenthood,” Bush said, eliciting loud applause. “I have the benefit of having been governor, and we did defund Planned Parenthood when I was governor. We tried to create a culture of life across the board.”

Bush said the argument against defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive health care and sex education at about 700 health centers across the country, is “it’s a war on women, and you’re attacking women’s health issues.”

“You could take dollar for dollar—although I’m not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women’s 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, but abortion should not be funded by the government, any government in my mind.”

Bush went on to promise that if elected president he will bring a budget to Congress, and “I can promise you that there will not be $500 million going to Planned Parenthood.”

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Hillary Clinton shot back on Twitter, “Jeb Bush: You are absolutely, unequivocally wrong.”

Bush responded: “What’s absolutely, unequivocally wrong is giving taxpayer dollars to an org whose practices show no regard for lives of unborn.”

Later, the Bush campaign issued a statement saying the candidate “misspoke” in his conversation with Moore.

“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,” Bush said. “They provide critical services to all, but particularly low-income women who don’t have the access they need.

“I was referring to the hard-to-fathom $500 million in federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood—an organization that was callously participating in the unthinkable practice of selling fetal organs. Democrats and Republicans agree we absolutely must defund them and redirect those funds to other women’s health organizations.”

Planned Parenthood denies profit

Planned Parenthood says its tissue donation follows all laws and ethical guidelines. While Planned Parenthood charges enough to cover expenses related to the procurement of fetal tissue, the organization denies it profits from their sale.

Planned Parenthood performs abortions, but federal law already prohibits the government from paying for them. Last year, Planned Parenthood received $528.4 million in federal, state and local-government funds from two primary sources, the Title X Family Planning Program and Medicaid.

Abortion services, which Planned Parenthood claims represent 3 percent of services the nonprofit provides, are funded by private donors, foundations and fees.

Moore’s interview with Bush, along with a previously recorded interview with fellow GOP candidate Marco Rubio, was conducted in front of a crowd of 13,000 evangelicals attending the Send North America conference co-sponsored by the North American and International mission boards of the Southern Baptist Convention.