Marco Rubio Says He's Okay With Fetal Tissue From Miscarriages Being Used For Research

Rubio says he believes Planned Parenthood is pushing women into getting abortions in order to sell their fetal tissue.

Marco Rubio says while he is against fetal tissue research when the tissue is obtained from an abortion, he is okay with research done on tissue from a miscarriage or any other natural end to pregnancy.

Fetal tissue donations from abortions have come under scrutiny from conservatives after an anti-abortion group released a series of videos which they claim show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of tissues from aborted fetuses for profit. Planned Parenthood has denied the allegations.

The senator from Florida has recently made the case that a government shutdown over funding Planned Parenthood would be the fault of President Obama and Senate Democrats.

"So there are cases, we're now getting into the weeds on it, but it's an important question," Rubio told an Iowa television station over the weekend. "And there are cases where a child is miscarried or there's some other natural end of a [pregnancy].

"And in those cases if there's something that can be salvaged from it that could help someone else, we're for it, no different than organ donation where unfortunately someone who's young and healthy dies in a car accident and -- I've had a relative who died an untimely death and his organs were harvested and it helped save people and provide organs for them."

Rubio said he believes Planned Parenthood is pushing women into getting abortions, and that fetal tissue from abortion has "created an industry."

"That's different from saying we're going to take the fetal tissue of aborted fetuses, because now what you've done is you've created an industry," added Rubio. "Now what you've done is you've created an incentive for people to be pushed into abortions so that those tissues can be harvested and sold for a profit.

"If you go to one of these centers, young women are provided very few options and [in] many places are not told anything about, for example, adoption services that might be available to them," said Rubio. 'The idea that, in essence, you come in and it's already predetermined: this is the direction that -- this is what this place does, it provides abortions and we are going to channel you in that direction.

"And I just think you've created an industry now, where you create the situation where very much you've created an incentive for people not just to look forward to having more abortions but being able to sell that fetal tissue for purposes -- these centers -- for purposes of making a profit off of it, as you've seen in some of these Planned Parenthood affiliates," he concluded.

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