Rather than discussing that anti-abortion rhetoric could have played a role in the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado, 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz described the shooter as a "transgendered leftist activist."

During a campaign stop in Iowa on Sunday, the Texas senator refused to acknowledge that the anti-abortion rhetoric from the conservative pro-life moment may have influenced a man to launch a deadly attack at a Planned Parenthood clinic on Friday that killed three people.

Cruz condemned the "vicious rhetoric on the left blaming those who are pro-life," reports The Texas Tribune.

Cruz also accused the media of wanting "to blame him on the pro-life movement when at this point there's very little evidence to indicate that."

However, when a reporter noted that the suspect in the Colorado Springs killings, who has been identified as 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear, is alleged to have mentioned "baby parts" after his arrest, Cruz replied, "Well, it's also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and transgendered leftist activist, if that's what he is," reports The Las Vegas Review Journal.

"We know that he was a man who was registered to vote as a woman," Cruz said. "The media promptly wants to blame him on the pro-life moment when at this point there is very little evidence to suggest that."

According to the right-wing blog, The Gateway Pundit, Dear registered as a female on a Colorado state voter registration form.

When asked if he would called the shooting an act of domestic terrorism like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee did during an interview with CNN's"State of the Union," Cruz said that he does not want to draw any conclusions.

"I would call it a murder," he said. "It was a multiple murder of what appears to be a deranged individual. And it was horrific, it was evil and we will find out more about the facts, but I don't think we should jump to conclusions."

"We don't know what those motives were, but whatever they were, it's unacceptable, and it's horrific and wrong," Cruz told reporters before a town hall event.