Sen. Lankford Hopes Pope Will Discuss Planned Parenthood Funding

The bill, up for a vote on Thursday, will likely be blocked by Democrats, setting up Republicans for a government shutdown threat over an opportunity to increase spending.

WASHINGTON – Republicans who want to shut the down the federal government rather than provide $500,000 in funding to Planned Parenthood insist that their party won’t be punished for having the courage of its anti-abortion convictions. He says the disagreement stems from a battle over Planned Parenthood and its alleged involvement in the practice of procuring tissue from aborted fetuses for research purposes.

GOP leaders in the House have staged several votes on anti-abortion legislation, but the moves haven’t satisfied a handful of GOP hardliners who are insisting that the must-pass budget measure include language stripping taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Listening to Planned Parenthood executives callously discussing the selling of body parts from children who never had a chance at life should shake anyone’s conscience to its core.

Republicans hoped that simply allowing a vote on the bill which Democrats would not allow when they controlled the Senate would appeal to socially conservative voters and create campaign problems for Democratic senators from GOP-leaning states. “I am pleased that there is forward legislative momentum in the Senate to avoid a government shutdown”.

Rubio, a Florida senator, made his recent comments while appearing on a local Iowa radio station, suggesting that there should be a federal investigation into the workings of Planned Parenthood.

A “Dear colleague” letter warns fellow Republicans of the pitfalls that accompany a tea party bid to reject any spending plan that doesn’t defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of videos showing its officials, among other things, haggling over prices for harvested fetal organs.

The voting for the stopgap spending bill is scheduled for Thursday and would keep the government operating until December 11th if passed, although it is unlikely it will make it out of the Senate.

Last week marked an important milestone in Congress. The House of Representatives took the first major steps against Planned Parenthood by passing my bill, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015.

“We should not be content with simple show votes, which is Republican leadership’s favorite strategy”.

“It’s a bad, inefficient, wrong way to run the government of the United States”, Hoyer told reporters Wednesday, noting leaders have known for months that a bill would need to attract bipartisan support, but the GOP hasn’t reached out to Democrats. Planned Parenthood says 80 percent of its clients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy.

The measure also contains $700 million in emergency funding to fight western wildfires.

Tobias advocated instead for a more “long-term” approach to defunding Planned Parenthood, including electing a president who is opposed to abortion.

“They think it’s the only way to force America to accept their demands for more debt and more bureaucracy”, McConnell said.