Rick Perry: Planned Parenthood 'Profits Off the Tragedy of a Destroyed Human Life'

In response to the shocking undercover video showing Planned Parenthood’s top doctor discussing selling body parts from aborted babies, Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) criticized the abortion provider’s “penchant for profiting off the tragedy of a destroyed human life” and reaffirmed his support for withdrawing their taxpayer funding.

As Breitbart News reported, Planned Parenthood’s chief medical officer Dr. Deborah Nucatola is seen on the video calmly eating her lunch while discussing selling the remains of aborted fetuses to medical research companies. Nucatola’s comments include gruesome details about different abortion methods that avoid crushing the organs and tissues that can sell for the highest prices, but still, of course, end the life of the unborn child.

“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,” said Perry in a statement provided to Breitbart News. “It is because of stories like this that I signed legislation defunding Planned Parenthood in the state of Texas – to protect human life and the health and safety of Texans.”

In addition to signing a bill prohibiting taxpayer funds from going to Planned Parenthood, Perry also signed “Women’s Right to Know” Act in 2003, a parental consent law and ban on abortions after 26 weeks gestation in 2005, as well as the new funding for abortion alternatives in the 2005 state budget, the sonogram law in 2011, and perhaps most famously, supported House Bill 2 (HB 2) in 2013, the law that banned abortions after 20 weeks and imposed stricter safety requirements on abortion clinics.

When former State Sen. Wendy Davis filibustered HB 2 at the end of the first 2013 special session, Perry called the Texas Legislature back for a second special session the very next day. The bill passed in that second special session.

At a news conference in 2013 during the HB 2 debate, Texas Right to Life Executive Director Elizabeth Graham recounted many of these pro-life bills, saying that during Perry’s tenure as Governor, Texas had “passed more pro-life legislation in the last 10 years than in history.”

Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.