A Planned Parenthood employee on Monday removed her affiliation with the pro-choice group from her Twitter account after she made comments critical of Democratic primary front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Diana Arellano, who previously identified herself on her Twitter profile as the “Manager of Community Engagement” for Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, now only describes herself as “Unapologetic about abortion care and access & reproductive justice.”
“Since some people are unclear, my tweets are my own opinions and not a reflection of where I work,” she wrote in a tweet on Monday.
Ms. Arellano on Sunday criticized Mrs. Clinton for describing the unborn as a “person,” saying in a tweet that the term “further stigmatizes #abortion.”
Mrs. Clinton on Sunday used the terms “person” and “child” to describe what it is that’s aborted.
“The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights,” she said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything we possibly can in the vast majority of instances to, you know, help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support.”
SEE ALSO: Hillary Clinton says ‘unborn person’ has no constitutional rights
The former secretary of state also said “there is room for reasonable kinds of restrictions” on abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Pro-choice advocates have long abhorred terms such as “child” or “person” when describing the unborn, arguing they imply a false sense of humanity.
Guidelines issued by the International Planned Parenthood Federation discourage the use of phrases such as “abort a child” when discussing the procedure, instead recommending “end a pregnancy” or “have an abortion.”
“’Abort a child is medically inaccurate, as the fetus is not yet a child,” the guide reads.
Mrs. Clinton’s comments came after she insinuated that primary rival Bernie Sanders is insufficiently committed to the pro-choice cause.
Planned Parenthood, in its first ever primary endorsement last January, backed Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic primary over Mr. Sanders.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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