US President Barack Obama might not have seen the Planned Parenthood sting videos yet, but his spokesman Josh Earnest has. In fact, Earnest was so troubled by the "shocking" footage showing babies being dissected that he agrees wholeheartedly that it was only right for Planned Parenthood to issue an apology because of it.
According to Life Site News, Planned Parenthood has offered an apology for the behaviour of some employees caught in the videos. However, its president Cecile Richards only apologised for the "tone" of Dr. Deborah Nucatola in the first video, saying her remarks about harvesting body parts were not "compassionate."
Earnest said issuing an apology "was an appropriate thing for Planned Parenthood to do."
At the same time, he noted that it is wrong for Republicans to try and defund the abortion service provider.
"The policy being advanced by Republicans does nothing more than take away healthcare access for millions of families all across the country," Earnest said. "I'm not really sure what the Republican fascination is with taking healthcare away from millions of American families, but it's not something the president is going to agree with."
"The way that Republicans, including some Republican candidates last night, have injected this ideological issue in the midst of the budget debate, has made it more difficult to reach a bipartisan budget debate," he added, stressing that there might be "significant consequences for our economy."
During the CNN debate, Republican presidential hopefuls all expressed their desire to defund Planned Parenthood, with many saying that congressional Republican leaders should run the risk of Obama shutting down the government.
"Absolutely, we shouldn't be sending $500 million of taxpayer money to funding an ongoing criminal enterprise," Senator Ted Cruz said during the debate, which was held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California. "Republican leadership in both houses of Congress has begun this discussion by preemptively surrendering to Barack Obama."
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie agreed: "We elected a Republican Congress to do this, and they should be doing it, and they're not. And they're giving the president a pass."
