Watch: Rand Paul Slams Fellow Republicans for Pro-Life 'Lip Service'
Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul slammed fellow Republicans this week for telling their constituents they are pro-life but often failing to vote that way.
The libertarian-leaning senator’s comments came during his address Thursday to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference, as Breitbart News noted.
He said that while there may be some victories in the pro-life movement, “We still lose in the legislation.”
“Sometimes we lose because the people who come to you and give you lip service and say, ‘Oh I’m pro-life, I’m pro-life,’ and then they don’t seem to vote that way,” Paul said.
The senator then proceeded to give an example, citing an experience he claimed to have had with a fellow Republican.
“Last year, I tried to attach to a spending bill a prohibition to have any money spent by Planned Parenthood,” Paul said. He went on to say that “one of the senior Republican senators” told him, “We cannot have the vote today.”
When Paul pressed him on why the Senate couldn’t vote on the measure, he was told, “We might win.”
“I’m not kidding here,” Paul said.
Paul then asked his fellow lawmaker, “What does this mean?”
“Does this mean that passing your spending bill, getting the Democrats to vote for your spending bill, is more important than life?” he recalled asking.
Paul said the senator simply smiled.
“The thing is, you have Republicans that are more concerned with spending money than protecting the unborn,” Paul added.
Despite what often seems like legislative inaction on abortion at the federal level, Paul did cite some of the pro-life movement’s wins.
“Every time I think, ‘Well gosh, we lose all the time. We can’t even defund Planned Parenthood, we try to do all this and we seem to lose,’ I try to think of where we might be winning,” he said.
Paul said the pro-life movement is “winning the hearts and minds.”
“Less and less physicians want to be associated with the grisly practice [of abortion],” he said.
He added that the pro-life movement is winning the persuasive arguments because abortion is a “disgusting and terrible thing for anybody to be involved with.”
On his website, Paul echoes those sentiments.
“It is unconscionable that government would facilitate the taking of innocent life,” he says. “I strongly oppose any federal funding of abortion and will attempt to stop the flow of tax dollars to groups who perform or advocate for abortion.”
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