Hillary Clinton Scolds Jeb Bush for Saying ‘Anchor Babies’

Wednesday afternoon, Hillary Clinton’s Twitter feed highlighted a Politico story in which Republican candidate Jeb Bush used the phrase “anchor babies.” “They’re called babies,” Hillary tweeted in response.

Hillary’s comment was about a political debate on immigration, not abortion. However, many who read her comment about “babies” felt obliged to point out its application to that other ongoing controversy.

Hillary’s comment seemed particularly tone-deaf given the release Wednesday morning of a particularly gruesome new video by the Center for Medical Progress. In the video, Holly O’Donnell, a former Stem Express employee, describes a trip to Planned Parenthood for the purpose of “tissue” collection. A colleague called O’Donnell over and asked her to see something “kind of cool.” That something turned out to be a late stage, intact fetus. O’Donnell says the colleague then tapped the baby’s heart and it began to beat. Then O’Donnell was asked to collect the brain by cutting through the baby’s face with scissors.

The video released this morning was the 3rd in a series and the 7th overall released by CMP. The previous videos have led to calls for federal investigations into Planned Parenthood, as well as separate investigations in 12 states. At issue is whether Planned Parenthood has violated laws against profiting from the sale of fetal tissue and whether PP alters its procedures to provide more usable specimens.

Hillary Clinton initially said she found the videos released by CMP “disturbing.” However, she has since fallen in line and defended Planned Parenthood. “I think it is unfortunate that Planned Parenthood has been the object of such a concerted attack for so many years. And it’s really an attack against a woman’s right to chose,” Hillary said last month during a campaign stop.