“If you want to have a truthful debate, then let’s talk about the 400,000 Pap smears, the 500,000 breast exams, the 4.5 million STD and HIV tests that Planned Parenthood does each year”. “We will vote on defunding (Planned Parenthood) on the (continuing resolution) in some form or another“.
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Jezebel reported that the two Democrats who voted in favor of freezing Planned Parenthood’s federal funds are Rep. Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota. The measure passed 241-187, with voting mostly along party lines, as Congress gears up to heat up the battle over abortion rights in 2016.
The second bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, would inflict criminal penalties on doctors who don’t try saving infants born alive during abortions.
“We’re looking for any avenue to defund Planned Parenthood knowing what we know about them now”, said Stewart.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton blasted the House vote to defund the group as “an attack on women’s health-nothing more, nothing less”.
What is clear is that the once-routine job of advancing a short-term spending bill to keep the government open past an October 1 deadline remains a major headache for House GOP leaders, chiefly Speaker John Boehner.
With the possibility of a federal government shutdown looming, the congressman criticized members of the House of Representatives for focusing on an “ideological debate” over something “everyone on both sides of the aisle acknowledges will not become law”. As Black herself stated about her bill, “What’s more, Planned Parenthood can get the money back if they fully commit to women’s healthcare and stop performing abortions”. The activists claimed that the videos proved that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue collected after abortion procedures, although there is no evidence that such action has ever taken place.
Planned Parenthood’s affiliated clinics are together the country’s largest provider of abortions.
H.R. 3134 would bar federal funds to the organization and its affiliates unless they certify that they won’t perform abortions.
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The Senate is likely to reject the House bill, and in any case President Obama would veto it, but the vote was in part designed to avoid an effort by Tea Party Republicans to shut down the government on September 30. There are enough Senate Democrats to block the legislation, however, and President Barack Obama has said that he will use a veto if needed. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, one of the presidential hopefuls.
