Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has finally broken her silence on the series of videos depicting shady organ harvesting practices at Planned Parenthood.
Clinton, who has received 20 times as much money from Planned Parenthood than the rest of the Democratic field combined, told the New Hampshire Union Leader that she found imagery in the Center for Medical Progress’ sting videos to be "disturbing" even though she has yet to watch any of the footage.
"I have seen pictures from them and obviously find them disturbing," the Democratic presidential hopeful said during a sit-down interview Tuesday with the paper.
"Planned Parenthood is answering questions and will continue to answer questions. I think there are two points to make," Clinton said. "One, 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. And this 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."
Clinton, a recipient of the 2009 Margaret Sanger Award, voiced tepid support for the three congressional investigations into the matter, but said they should go even further—targeting all abortion providers, rather than only the nation’s largest.
"If there’s going to be any kind of congressional inquiry, it should look at everything and not just one (organization)," she said.
The episode has drawn concern from one of the country’s most famous feminists and abortion supporters. Camille Paglia decried the media blackout of the Center for Medical Progress’ eye-opening investigation. She told the liberal extremist website Salon that she was "disgusted" by the "serious breaches of medical ethics" shown on the videos.
Now let me give you a recent example of the persisting insularity of liberal thought in the media. When the first secret Planned Parenthood video was released in mid-July, anyone who looks only at liberal media was kept totally in the dark about it, even after the second video was released. But the videos were being run nonstop all over conservative talk shows on radio and television. It was a huge and disturbing story, but there was total silence in the liberal media. That kind of censorship was shockingly unprofessional. The liberal major media were trying to bury the story by ignoring it. Now I am a former member of Planned Parenthood and a strong supporter of unconstrained reproductive rights. But I was horrified and disgusted by those videos and immediately felt there were serious breaches of medical ethics in the conduct of Planned Parenthood officials.
Clinton’s remarks came after her campaign repeatedly ignored and deflected inquiries from the Washington Free Beacon and IJ Review about whether she supported Planned Parenthood’s practices or the congressional investigation into the contents of the undercover videos. The Republican field has almost universally condemned the practice and endorsed defunding Planned Parenthood in the wake of the scandal. On Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R. Ky.), citing a Free Beacon report, criticized Clinton for failing to take a position on the issue or return nearly $10,000 she has received from Planned Parenthood officials in 2015.
"Hillary Clinton’s hands are stained by accepting this money, and she needs to immediately return every red cent she has received from Planned Parenthood employees," he told CNN.