Jeb Bush says he 'misspoke' after questioning need to spend $500 million on women's health

(Image credit: Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

last updated 5 August 2015

Jeb Bush learned a valuable lesson on Tuesday: Don't go too far off-script (and if you do, don't say that women's health programs aren't worthy of being fully funded).

While speaking to 13,000 people at a Southern Baptist convention in Nashville, Bush said that Planned Parenthood should be cut off from federal funding, and then went a step further by stopping mid-sentence to qualify his remarks and question government support for women's health programs in general, Politico reports. "I'm not sure we need half a billion dollars in funding for women's health programs," he said. "If you took dollar for dollar, there are many extraordinarily fine organizations, community health organizations that exist, federally sponsored community health organizations to provide quality care for women on a wide variety of health issues."

Not long after his remarks were made public, Hillary Clinton tweeted to Bush: "You are absolutely, unequivocally wrong." Bush quickly posted a statement online saying he "misspoke," and tried to clarify his comments. "There are countless community health centers, rural clinics, and other women's health organizations that need to be fully funded," he said. "They provide critical services to all, but particularly low-income women who don't have the access they need. I was referring to the hard-to-fathom $500 million in federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood.” Bush has had to explain other blunders in recent weeks, including his statement in July that "workers need to work longer hours."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.