January 11, 2016

Chris Christie Was for Planned Parenthood Before He Was Against It

In 1994, he said he donated to the group. In 2016, he said he didn’t.


In a taped interview with Face the Nation‘s John Dickerson that aired Sunday, New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie flatly denied that he had ever donated money to Planned Parenthood, as his rival Marco Rubio had asserted. Christie has repeatedly attacked the reproductive health organization, and as governor he cut the state’s entire $7.5 million family planning budget. Christie has repeatedly tried to position himself as someone who has never supported Planned Parenthood. 

The only problem is that Christie has supported Planned Parenthood. Christie was quoted in a 1994 interview in the Newark Star-Ledger as not only backing a woman’s right to an abortion, but donating money to Planned Parenthood.

“I support Planned Parenthood privately with my personal contribution and that should be the goal of any such agency, to find private donations,” Christie said. “It’s also no secret that I am pro-choice.”

This is not the first time that the New Jersey governor has attempted to revise history. Last June, Christie claimed that no new gun control legislation had been passed since he took over as governor. This too is false. 

It’s not hard to see why Christie, facing an array of conservative opponents, would feel the need to amend his track record on guns and reproductive rights. But lying about details that are so easily searchable on the internet might not be the best way to go about it.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate