--- title: Ted Cruz Twists Truth in New Anti-Trump Video description: Ted Cruz says "Planned Parenthood named Donald Trump their favorite Republican last fall." But it didn't. canonical: https://time.com/4226670/ted-cruz-donald-trump-planned-parenthood-video/ author: Alex Altman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-16T23:14:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:30.707Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ted Cruz Twists Truth in New Anti-Trump Video og:description: Ted Cruz says "Planned Parenthood named Donald Trump their favorite Republican last fall." But it didn't. og:url: https://time.com/4226670/ted-cruz-donald-trump-planned-parenthood-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0a4940ca2f22a6c/69887ddfab6d77a2a86a8750/ted-cruz7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidate Ted Cruz Campaigns In Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Cruz Twists Truth in New Anti-Trump Video twitter:description: Ted Cruz says "Planned Parenthood named Donald Trump their favorite Republican last fall." But it didn't. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta0a4940ca2f22a6c/69887ddfab6d77a2a86a8750/ted-cruz7.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ted Cruz Twists the Truth in New Anti-Trump Video > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=6d53343e-2b8e-4ec5-b2ed-bdb695779fda&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Ted Cruz: Defend the Right to Life [Watch (HLS stream): Ted Cruz: Defend the Right to Life](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/01iiuIHE.m3u8) (5:35)  _Published 2016-02-16. Ted Cruz ad._  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Feb 16, 2016 11:14 PM UTC  by [Alex Altman](https://time.com/author/alex-altman/)  ## Alex Altman Altman is the executive features editor and deputy Washington bureau chief at TIME. Feb 16, 2016 11:14 PM UTC Everywhere he goes on the campaign trail these days, Donald Trump is calling Ted Cruz a liar, generally without providing examples. But in a new video released Tuesday, Cruz does, in fact, twist the truth about Trump’s record. In the five-and-a-half-minute direct-to-camera video, Cruz offers a lengthy juxtaposition between his anti-abortion record and Trump’s history of support for the procedure. A little less than four minutes in, Cruz says, “Planned Parenthood named Donald Trump their favorite Republican last fall.” “If there was ever an award that a Republican politician should be ashamed to receive, that’s it,” Cruz says. It’s a great attack line in a conservative state like South Carolina. It’s just not true. “We have never said that, or even close,” says Erica Sackin, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson. Cruz appears to be seizing on a statement issued by Planned Parenthood last year, which was quoted in [a story by the _Daily Beast_’s Betsy Woodruff:](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/11/donald-trump-is-planned-parenthood-s-favorite-republican.html) --- > “” --- --- > “” --- The headline of Woodruff’s piece — “Donald Trump Is Planned Parenthood’s Favorite Republican” — was lifted from a tongue-in-cheek line written by the author. But ask Planned Parenthood, and they’re not such fans of Trump’s position on abortion. A statement put out by the group this week argues that Trump — who last year said it was worth shutting down the government to defund Planned Parenthood — has a set of policies on abortion that would be “devastating” for women. As for Cruz, Planned Parenthood criticized the Texas Senator “for relying on lies” to sow opposition to the organization. Cruz, of course, isn’t the only one twisting the truth to denigrate his rivals. Earlier on Tuesday, [an aide to Trump fabricated a quote about Cruz](http://time.com/4226362/donald-trump-ted-cruz-coburn-lying/), attributing a claim by a liberal blogger to former Republican Senator Tom Coburn. Asked for comment on the inaccuracy in Cruz’s new video, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler wrote in an email to TIME: “I’ll get back to you after I read all your articles with my pedantic filter turned on.” ## Transcript Here are some of the most powerful words spoken by Jesus in the New Testament. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. One of the main points of this teaching is to challenge us not to see ourselves as better or more important than others. But to instead be willing to defend the defenseless. There's no person more defenseless than an innocent child in the womb. That's why no issue reveals the true character of a candidate for public office more than the life issue. It's more than a litmus test. It's a window to the soul. Ronald Reagan once observed that the right to life was the most important God given right of them all For if you're not alive, then everything else is sort of meaningless. The right to life cannot be compromised like other issues because a person can't be 80 % alive and 20 % dead. Either their right to life was protected or it wasn't. A candidate that can't be trusted to protect the right to life Can't be trusted to protect any of our other god given rights either. When you look at the voting records of politicians. What you'll find is if they are bad on life they're always, I repeat always, bad on everything else too. If a politician will rob a fellow person of their right to life. Rest assured, they'll rob you of your private property rights, religious liberty, and look for new taxes and regulations to rob you of your hard earned money as well. Liberty isn't safe in the hands of a politician that doesn't hold all life sacred. For any one that doesn't hold life sacred can't possibly know What true liberty is, or where true liberty comes from. Because the spirit of true American liberty comes from the Creator, in whose image we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Recently an overwhelming number of South Carolina Republicans affirmed that spirit when 79 % of them voted to include language to defend the right to life of all persons. Both born and unborn in the State's constitution. Marrying language found in the US constitution which states that no person shall be denied life liberty or property without do process of law. I enthusiastically support that resolution and as president of the United States I pledge to you that I will do everything within my power To end the scourge of abortion once and for all. That I will use the full constitutional power and the bully pulpit of the presidency to promote a culture of life. That I will sign any legislation put on my desk to defend the least of these, including legislation that defends the rights of all persons without exceptions other than the life of the mother From conception to natural death. That I will not only defund Planned Parenthood but I will instruct the Department of Justice to investigate Planned Parenthood and to prosecute any and all criminal conduct, which those videos that we saw from the Center for Medical Progress so powerfully evidenced. Everything I just pledged to you should be an automatic requirement for any prospective president who takes an oath of office before an all- powerful God to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution. Unfortunately, that's not the case. The Democratic party is almost entirely beholden to Planned Parenthood. In it's gruesome interests. And sadly, too many Republicans have gone wobbly when it comes to one of the most important planks in our party's platform as well. Even now, there's a candidate in the race playing games with the sanctity of life. Donald Trump spent most of his adult life prior to this election enthusiastically pro- abortion. Even for partial birth abortion, if you can believe it. Now Donald Trump is the only candidate left in the Republican field who won't even pledge to defund Planned Parenthood, which is why Planned Parenthood named Donald Trump their favorite Republican last fall. If there was ever an award that a Republican politician should be ashamed to receive, That's it. Donald Trump claimed that Planned Parenthood does a lot of good, beside all the babies they abort and then sell their dismembered body parts for profit. Which is a little bit like saying Hillary Clinton was a great secretary of state except for the four Americans she left behind to die at Benghazi. Only one thing is going to make America great again, and it's the same thing that made America great in the first place. And that's returning to the ideas in the Declaration of Independence, that are enshrined in the Constitution, which declares there is a God, our rights come from Him, and not government. And therefore, government's most important obligation is to protect and defend our god- given rights. And chief among them, is the right to life. As Thomas Jefferson said, the care of human life, and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. So this Saturday, as you head off to vote in the crucial South Carolina primary, I ask you to consider, who do you trust to protect your God- given rights? Who do you trust to appoint the Supreme Court justices who will be the critical deciding votes to finally overturn Roe vs. Wade? There can be no more powerful statement about the sanctity of life than this. The first person to ever recognize Jesus Christ was his cousin, John the Baptist. Then, himself, an unborn child in the womb. 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