White House: No Plans To Defund Planned Parenthood

White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday defended Planned Parenthood after an anti-abortion group released a new video it claimed showed bargaining for post-abortion fetal parts.

The group, called the Center For Medical Progress, posted a heavily edited video last week that it claimed showed Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services, Deborah Nucatol, discussing payment for fetal parts with undercover actors posing as buyers from a biology company. A second video was released Tuesday.

READ MORE: Group Claims Planned Parenthood Sells Fetal Tissue

But Planned Parenthood says fetal tissue is donated for medical research, with consent of patients, and the only money it receives, and is allowed to receive, is used to cover expenses like transporting samples.

The White House agreed Wednesday, pointing to what many critics already had: the legitimacy of the Center and its editing techniques.

From The Hill:

Earnest pointed to media reports that raise “significant concerns about the way those videos were selectively edited to distort not just the words of the individual speaking, but also Planned Parenthood.

“They subscribe [to] and implement the highest ethical standards in carrying out their operations,” he said of the nonprofit health group.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), both Republican presidential candidates, have discussed adding an amendment to an upcoming federal funding bill that would de-fund Planned Parenthood.

“Obviously, we do not at all support a measure like that,” Earnst said.