Bernie Sanders goes on tweetstorm to defend Planned Parenthood

Vermont Sen. and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took to Twitter to defend Planned Parenthood Monday after House Republicans indicated that they will seek to strip federal funds from the organization.

In a series of tweets, Sanders claimed that Republicans’ "outrageous" efforts to defund Planned Parenthood have "nothing to do with improving healthcare."

Republicans in Congress have returned to their old obsession of trying to defund Planned Parenthood. This is outrageous for many reasons.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2017

Republicans’ plan has nothing to do with improving health care. They want to defund Planned Parenthood simply because it provides abortions.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2017

Abortions are not only legal. They are constitutionally protected, a right which was affirmed again in a Supreme Court ruling last summer.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2017

Planned Parenthood provides an array of health care to patients across the country. They help over 2.5 million Americans each year.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2017

Planned Parenthood mostly helps low-income people. Four out of five of those who benefit are at or below 150% of the poverty line.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2017

Women in this country have a right to health care & a right to control their own bodies. No cuts to Planned Parenthood. We will fight back.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) January 9, 2017

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday that the reconciliation bill the House of Representatives will use to vote to repeal Obamacare will contain Planned Parenthood legislation. House Republicans have said that funds currently granted to Planned Parenthood would be redirected to community health centers that do not perform abortions.

The scandal-plagued organization was recently the subject of a congressional investigation by the House Select Panel on Infant Lives spurred by allegations that Planned Parenthood was profiting from the sale of aborted fetal body parts, which is illegal in the United States. Planned Parenthood denied the allegations.

Republicans on the panel said they uncovered evidence of illegal and unethical conduct by Planned Parenthood — among other organizations — while Democrats decried the effort as a McCarthy-esque witch hunt.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the advocacy arm of the nation’s largest abortion provider, endorsed Sanders’ rival Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary.

Sanders later characterized the group as part of the “establishment.” Clinton and Planned Parenthood supporters pounced on the comment, forcing Sanders to walk it back.

The organization has given Sanders’ voting record a 100 percent rating on its scorecard.