FORT WORTH, Texas — Barbara Pierce Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush, said Wednesday that she strongly supports Planned Parenthood despite continued Republican efforts to defund the group.

“I am very proud to stand with Planned Parenthood,” Bush told a crowd of around 1,000 people gathered at the annual Planned Parenthood luncheon in Fort Worth’s downtown Omni Hotel. “I am proud to stand with Planned Parenthood not only because women, regardless of where they are from, deserve to live dignified, healthy lives, (but) … because it’s a really good investment. “We know that when women are healthy, their families and their children are healthier too.”

But Bush, whose father staunchly opposes abortion, did tell the crowd that she’s “a little bit frustrated that we are still making the case of why women’s health matters in 2017.”

Bush’s comments come as there is much at stake for Planned Parenthood, a group Texas officials continue working to defund. President Donald Trump has taken up the fight at the federal level, having signed an executive order in January barring federal funds from groups that promote abortion across the world.


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