Senator Cruz sent a letter to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying he would oppose “any government funding legislation that would authorize or provide federal funds for Planned Parenthood”.
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A Missouri Woman is scheduled to tell House lawmakers today how she survived an abortion attempt by her then teenaged mother.
Stoesz said the protest is driven by the group’s political agenda to ban abortion.
So the next time someone spouts off a phony Planned Parenthood propaganda point about how we need Planned Parenthood and anyone who says otherwise is anti-woman, remind them of the facts. The furor began when an anti-abortion group called the Center for Medical Progress began releasing videos it claimed proved that Planned Parenthood sells fetal tissue.
Republican leaders in both the House and Senate were mulling options on Tuesday for a stop-gap funding bill that would keep the government open through early December, according to Republican aides.
The Republican front-runner in the presidential race, Donald Trump, has called on congressional Republicans to shut down the federal government rather than pass a spending bill that includes funding for Planned Parenthood.
“The people who made these videos are liars in a long line of liars”, said Rep. Jerry Nadler, New York Democrat.
In noteworthy omissions at Wednesday’s hearing, chaired by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., Planned Parenthood and the Center for Medical Progress were not testifying.
Planned Parenthood officials say they’ve done nothing illegal and have said the videos have been deceptively edited.
The contentious issue has dominated lawmakers’ attention after nine videos were released over the summer allegedly depicting agents of Planned Parenthood discussing fetal tissue sales. McConnell worries that defunding Planned Parenthood will cause Obama to use it as an excuse to shut down the government.
And the director of the Program for the Study of Reproductive Justice at Yale Law School, Priscilla Smith. Committee members grilled her about the humane treatment of fetuses, viability and other details about abortion practices and law.
Having the rest of the 2016 Republican field on board would give Cruz more ammunition to push his fight against Planned Parenthood, even though the Republican leadership in Congress is wary of engaging in another high-profile battle that could fuel criticism their party is anti-women. The family planning provider receives about $500 million in government funding each year, which it uses to subsidize services like birth control, cancer screenings and sexually transmitted disease treatments for low-income patients. “It’s about taking it away from Planned Parenthood“. She said an investigation into the videos found they were heavily distorted to misrepresent actual events.
Wearing pink T-shirts that read, “I Stand With Planned Parenthood“, several supporters of the organization were in attendance at the hearing.
The Judiciary Committee announced that the hearing was meant to “hear from the experts on the issues surrounding the alleged acts of Planned Parenthood“.
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Back in session after the August recess, Congress has to pass an agreement to continue funding by the end of the month to avoid a federal shutdown. Democrats also allege that the group violated state and federal laws in the course of obtaining the undercover video and interviews.
