The presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is out with a new television ad backing its pro-life message.
Breitbart News reached out to the Cruz campaign for comment, and spokesman Rick Tyler said that this was a $33,000 buy on Fox News Channel in the Des Moines area, and would be supplemented by statewide radio ads.
Regarding Cruz’s vow to “prosecute” Planned Parenthood, “the law about selling body parts is clear,” said Tyler, “It’s a felony, so it needs to be investigated. The videos indicate there is lots of evidence they are selling the body parts of unborn children.”
In the ad, Cruz targets Planned Parenthood, which has been the subject of an ongoing series of undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress showing the abortion provider’s employees appearing to discuss and engage in selling organs and tissues from aborted babies for profit.
“How did America become a country that harvests organs from unborn children,” asks the ad’s narrator. “And who has the courage to stop it?”
“Ted Cruz will prosecute and defund Planned Parenthood. Help Cruz restore American values.”
The ad then invites viewers to attend a “Rally for Religious Liberty” on August 21st in Des Moines, organized by the Cruz campaign. Along with Cruz, Dick and Betty Odgard, an Iowa couple whose business was shut down after they refused to host a same-sex wedding, will be speaking.
Cruz has been among the many Republican candidates who have called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and for the organization to be investigated for potential criminal wrongdoing.
Former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) took it one step further, saying in late July that he also wanted its nonprofit tax status to be revoked by the IRS, as Breitbart News reported. Donald Trump, for his part, is showing a willingness to continue partial funding of Planned Parenthood, as he stated in a CNN interview Tuesday morning.
Follow Sarah Rumpf on Twitter @rumpfshaker.