Republicans Thursday slammed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for likening them to terrorists on women's issues and their calls for stripping Planned Parenthood of its federal funding.
GOP candidate Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said this on Twitter:
Another candidate, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, also took to Twitter:
Tennessee Rep. Diane Black, who has been pushing for stripping Planned Parenthood of its funding, said Clinton's remarks smacked of "gutter politics."
"From President Obama calling Republicans 'crazies' to Hillary Clinton comparing pro-life Americans to terrorist groups, Democrats are engaging in gutter politics of the worst kind," Black said. "The American people are owed a meaningful conversation on the merits of the issues, not cheap insults and character attacks.
"I am incensed by these careless remarks," Black said.
Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said: "For Hillary Clinton to equate her political opponents to terrorists is a new low for her flailing campaign.
"She should apologize immediately for her inflammatory rhetoric," Moore said.
In a speech at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Clinton accused her potential Republican rivals of pushing "out of date" policies.
She specifically singled out candidates Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
"Now extreme views about women? We expect that from some of the terrorist groups," Clinton said. "We expect that from people who don't want to live in the modern world.
"But it's a little hard to take coming from Republicans who want to be the president of the United States, yet they espouse out of date and out of touch policies," she told the 2,800 people at the rally. "They are dead wrong for 21st century America."
Clinton did not specifically mention any terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State, which has held women as sex slaves in Iraq and Syria.
The former secretary of state has defended Planned Parenthood in the wake of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress featuring officials discussing the sale of fetal body parts.
The videos have prompted investigations by congressional committees and Republicans in Congress — and several states have sought to block government payments to the group.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, is another presidential candidate that has called for the organization to lose its aid.
Cruz said this Thursday on Twitter:
In Cleveland, Clinton said she took it "a little personal when they go after women," pointing to Republican efforts to cut access to women's health centers and opposition to abortion rights.
She specifically attacked Rubio, saying that he "brags about wanting to deny victims of rape and incest access to healthcare and abortion."
Rubio said at the first Republican debate earlier this month that he had long opposed abortion but disputed the notion from the moderator that he opposed abortion except in the case of rape and incest.
He said he had never advocated for those exceptions.
In the Senate, the senator co-sponsored a 2013 bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks and contained a number of exceptions, including cases of rape or incest that have been reported to law enforcement or where the mother's life is at risk.
Clinton also slammed Bush's opposition to funding Planned Parenthood. Bush said at a Colorado town hall this week that the organization shouldn't "get a penny" because they weren't involved with women's health issues.
He said that as governor he expanded women's health programs through community-based organizations.
Regarding Kasich, Clinton said that he had banned state funding for some rape crisis centers because they sometimes referred women to other health facilities that provide abortion services.
As governor, Kasich and fellow Ohio Republicans have imposed restrictions on certain public funding sources for abortion-related activities, added hurdles to getting an abortion and increased regulatory requirements that make it harder for abortion providers to continue to operate.
Since he took office in 2011, Ohio has seen the number of abortion providers trimmed in half.
But the Kasich campaign said that "Ohio and our country deserves better than what Clinton is offering them. Hillary Clinton's trail of scandal is decades long, and only continues to worsen."
The governor hit back further on Twitter:
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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