U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) challenged presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to a 'fight' on his home turf of Texas over this past weekend at a fundraiser for the Texas Democratic Party:
“We will not let Ted Cruz shut down this government over Planned Parenthood! He wants a fight over Planned Parenthood? My answer is, ‘Bring it on, Ted!’” Said Warren during a speech in Austin, drawing loud applause.
The challenge comes in the midst of Cruz vowing to launch a grassroots campaign to defund Planned Parenthood in all 50 states and prosecute all criminal violators of wronging.
Senator Cruz co-sponsored a Senate bill to defund Planned Parenthood earlier in August which fell short by a 53-46 vote.
In an opt-ed in USA Today, Cruz wrote:
I intend to lead the fight in the United States Senate to defund Planned Parenthood, even while investigations continue. The time for show votes is over. Funding the federal government does not require funding Planned Parenthood. But basic decency and our commitment to the right to life does require that we stop taxpayer funding of abortions and any trade in baby parts.
Senator Warren, who has criticized members of Congress for wanting to defund Planned Parenthood, has been very vocal in her standing support of the abortion provider. In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Warren conflated healthcare and the killing of unborn children, telling Republicans:
I want to say to my Republican colleagues; The era is 2015, not 1955 and not 1895. Women have lived through a world where backward looking ideologues tried to interfere with the basic health decisions made by a women and her doctor and we are NOT going back. Not now, not ever. The Republican plan to defund Planned Parenthood is a Republican plan to defund women's healthcare.