Senate To Vote On Planned Parenthood Funding

Last week, Mrs. Clinton called the videos “disturbing” while still defending Planned Parenthood.

U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Indiana, will preside over the vote which would strip federal dollars from Planned Parenthood and move them to community health centers, which Coats says can perform the same procedures to women.

Republicans introduced their bill after an anti-abortion group began releasing secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood officials describing how they provide tissue from some aborted fetuses to researchers.

Efforts in Congress to end funding for Planned Parenthood could end access to cancer screenings, well-women health exams, contraception and other health services for thousands of low-income women in New Mexico.

Democrats generally have rallied against the bill, painting the GOP drive as an assault on women’s health care. And there’s no evidence that Planned Parenthood has done so.

The debate is in fact all about abortion, according to Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood.

Republicans say if Congress denied federal aid to Planned Parenthood, other providers could cover the group’s displaced clients. Many are choosing their words like Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who says of Republicans, “They’re attacking women’s health”. It might change your mind about whether taxpayers should help fund Planned Parenthood.

Underscoring the sensitivity, some moderates will likely cross party lines Monday.

The center and some of its GOP supporters have said the videos show that Planned Parenthood sells the tissue for profit, which is illegal under federal law.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., is a co-sponsor of the measure to defund Planned Parenthood.

In 1982, when Ronald Reagan was president, his administration issued the so-called squeal rule, which sought to require family planning providers, including Planned Parenthood, to notify parents when providing contraceptives to minors or lose their funding.

In 2011, House Republicans passed a spending bill that stripped money for Planned Parenthood, and the fight over the issue came close to causing a government shutdown.

The Kentucky senator told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday “I support any legislation that will defund Planned Parenthood“.