Hillary Clinton Calls Planned Parenthood Videos ‘Disturbing’

In a Tuesday interview, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she found images from the undercover Planned Parenthood videos “disturbing.”

“I have seen pictures from them and obviously find them disturbing,” Clinton told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Nonetheless, she continued to defend the controversial organization from conservative attacks. “Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions… Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services.”

“I’m well aware that passions are very high,” Clinton said. “I have said for more than 22 years that abortion should be legal, safe and rare. As First Lady, I led an effort to try to lower the number of teenage pregnancies and we succeeded, and as President I will continue to work toward that so that women are fully empowered, they can afford to make responsible decisions, and I hope we will be successful at that.”

However, Clinton didn’t completely rule out a congressional inquiry into the videos, but said Congress should broaden its focus. “[T]his raises not questions about Planned Parenthood so much as it raises questions about the whole process, that is, not just involving Planned Parenthood, but many institutions in our country. And if there’s going to be any kind of congressional inquiry, it should look at everything and not just one [organization].”

Clinton’s comments certainly strike a much more nuanced tone than her full-throated defense of Planned Parenthood last week, where she dismissed the videos as a “concerted attack… It’s really is an attack against a women’s right to choose to make the most personal, difficult decisions that any woman would face based on her faith and the medical advice that she is given.”

[Image via screengrab]
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