When political analyst Mark Halperin attempted to make the Planned Parenthood aborted fetal parts controversy about Rick Perry's opinions on the organization, Perry quickly turned the tables on him.

In a segment on "Morning Joe" Thursday, Halperin asked Perry to essentially defend Planned Parenthood and asked "why are you so troubled by this video?"

Seeing what he was doing from a mile away, Perry wouldn't let Halperin get away with diverting attention from the moral issues at the heart of the discussion. Having said that, of course, PP offers some helpful services, Perry turned the question back on Halperin, asking, "You look at that video and you're good with it?"

After Halperin admitted that the video "raises a lot of questions," Perry said, "It does indeed. And I think you just answered the question for us."

Here's the exchange (transcript via Newsbusters):

HALPERIN: Governor, I'd like to ask you a couple of questions about Planned Parenthood. There's a controversy swirling around that you've weighed in on. First, I'd like you to say, does Planned Parenthood do anything, provide any services that you think are valuable, and if so what are they, and second, why are you so troubled by this video?"

PERRY: Well, Planned Parenthood does give some services which I would suggest are good for women's health, but —

HALPERIN: Which ones, Governor? Can you be specific on that?

PERRY: Oh, I think some of the cancer screenings, some of those types of screening are obviously good for women's health. But when you look at the overall picture of what they do, they are, they're in a business that people of Texas have a concern about.

And Mark, let me ask you, You looked at that video and you're good with it?

HALPERIN: I think the video raises a lot of questions and you and others have raised them.

PERRY: It does indeed. And I think you just answered the question for us. Thank you.

Perry's move earned a "Nice!" from impressed co-host Mika Brzezinski. Joe Scarborough followed up by pressing Halperin to comment on Planned Parenthood's "tearing fetuses apart so they can save this tissue," which elicited an admission from Halperin that the story was not simply a "partisan" debate:

HALPERIN: Well, look, leave the politics aside for a second. There are obviously still a lot of ethical issues, medical ethical issues still around from the discussions we had back when President Bush was in office on stem cell research and other things, but the comments made in this video are troubling to a lot of people, not just Republicans, I don’t think for Governor Perry, I’ll say, but for others, it's a partisan issue, really, it’s not just a question of not just taxpayer money, but the question of ethics of a national organization that has the responsibility to do what’s right. And I think this is a case where lots of people need to be involved in the debate, and Governor Perry have raised it, as have a lot of members of Congress, so that people can understand what is happening and debate whether it's the right thing for our society.

H/t Newsbusters. Video via Washington Examiner.