Barbara Pierce Bush, the daughter of former President George W. Bush, will headline a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in North Texas on Wednesday.
She will be the keynote speaker at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas' annual Fort Worth luncheon, helping to raise money for an organization that provides an array of reproductive and sexual health services, including abortions.
Bush's public appearance before the group is striking, given that her father, President George W. Bush, was a staunch abortion opponent during his time as Texas governor and as president.
But it's not entirely unexpected. Bush's mother, former First Lady Laura Bush, has expressed support for the legality of abortion on a handful of occasions. The younger Bush, the CEO and co-founder of Global Health Corps, called Planned Parenthood an "exceptional organization" in a June New York Times interview, and attended a fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Paris in October.
The lead donor of the luncheon is Sid R. Bass, the prominent Fort Worth billionaire.
Bush's health organization is, according to its website, a nonprofit that "mobilizes a global community of young leaders to build the movement for health equity." It partners with organizations overseas to place fellows in year-long tenures promoting world health. Several Planned Parenthood branches are among those organizations.
There's a strong Texas connection in all of this: The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is Cecile Richards, the daughter of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards.
Bush's father ousted Richards from the Governor's Mansion in 1994. Many political observers viewed that campaign as — at least in part — revenge for Richards' acerbic 1988 Democratic National Convention keynote speech mocking the GOP nominee. It was Bush's grandfather, George H.W. Bush.
