Marco Rubio: ‘All this outrage over a dead lion, but where is all the outrage over the planned parenthood dead babies’

Rubio fields questions at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, earlier this month. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio took to Twitter to comment on the growing outrage over the American doctor who killed “Cecil the Lion” in Zimbabwe with what some might call an ill-advised pivot to the GOP’s push to defund Planned Parenthood.

“Look at all this outrage over a dead lion, but where is all the outrage over the planned parenthood dead babies,” Rubio tweeted Wednesday.

Walter James Palmer, a dentist from Bloomington, Minn., used bait to lure the beloved — and protected — 13-year-old lion outside Hwange National Park in early July so he could shoot it with a bow and arrow.

Palmer says he didn’t know the lion was protected until after the trip, adding that he relied on local guides to ensure the hunt was legal.

“I had no idea that the lion I took was a known, local favorite, was collared and part of a study until the end of the hunt,” Palmer said in a statement to the Star Tribune. “I relied on the expertise of my local professional guides to ensure a legal hunt.”

On Wednesday, a Zimbabwean court charged one of the guides with failure to “supervise, control and take reasonable steps to prevent an unlawful hunt.” The owner of the game park is also expected to be charged.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it is “deeply concerned” about the killing, and Zimbabwean authorities said they plan to press poaching charges, but Palmer says he hasn’t heard from authorities.

News of Cecil’s killing sparked a firestorm across social media, as Palmer’s online profiles were filled with threats and hate messages, and protests outside his dental office were planned. A “We the People” petition calling on the United States to extradite Palmer to Zimbabwe so he can face justice has gathered more than 70,000 signatures since its launch on Tuesday.

Rubio’s tweet comes three days after the Senate failed to take up a bill to eliminate taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Florida senator, who had previously voted to defund the organization, says he is “sickened” by the videos — recently released by an antiabortion group — that appear to show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the sale of aborted fetal tissue.

“The cruel and callous language used by senior Planned Parenthood officials is sickening, shows a complete disregard for innocent unborn life, not to mention Planned Parenthood’s clients, and speaks to an organization that is morally bankrupt,” Rubio said last week. “There is simply no justification for an organization that fosters this kind of culture to receive a penny of taxpayer funding, and there should be a serious and impartial investigation into the grotesque practices.”

Planned Parenthood claims the secretly recorded footage, released by the Center for Medical Progress, was “heavily edited” and “falsely portrays Planned Parenthood’s participation in tissue donation.” The organization is quick to point out that just 3 percent of its health care services are abortions and that it performs millions of STD tests and hundreds of thousands of Pap smears and breast exams annually.

On Tuesday, Hillary Clinton called the videos “disturbing” but reiterated her support for the organization and abortion rights.

“Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services,” Clinton told New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper. “I’m well aware that passions are very high. I have said for more than 22 years that abortion should be legal, safe and rare. As first lady, I led an effort to try to lower the number of teenage pregnancies, and we succeeded, and as president I will continue to work toward that so that women are fully empowered, they can afford to make responsible decisions, and I hope we will be successful at that.”