Senate vote to defund Planned Parenthood fails

The anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress has released four videos in which people posing as representatives of a company that purchases fetal tissue converse with Planned Parenthood officials.

The group has said the videos show Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for fetal tissue from abortions it performs.

If we alter our process, and we are able to obtain intact fetal cadavers, we can make it part of the budget that any dissections are this, and splitting the specimens into different shipments is this. That means Planned Parenthood is safe, for now.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a state investigation of Planned Parenthood prompted by previous videos, and called the latest “simply appalling”. Chavez-Ochoa said the blocked materials represent “a small percentage” of the information the Irvine, California-based organization has secretly gathered on abortion providers and that it will release additional videos not subject to the order. During Monday’s debate, they sounded a theme they have employed in recent elections, characterizing the GOP drive as an assault on health care for women.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest, appearing on CNN’s “New Day” on Monday, said that he has not viewed the videos.

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said, “The American taxpayer should not be asked to fund an organization like Planned Parenthood that has shown a sheer disdain for human dignity and complete disregard for women and their babies”.

Stung by past government shutdowns that voters have blamed on Republicans, GOP leaders have shown no interest in another one this fall.

Federal agencies run out of money at the end of September, and Congress is expected to take up some type of short-term spending bill next month.

But it could be challenging for those Republican leaders to control their most conservative lawmakers, who are urged on by the party’s anti-abortion activists.

With the Senate unwilling to stand up against Planned Parenthood’s use of public funds, the governor’s decision to do so won him quick approval among conservatives on social media.

Planned Parenthood and Democrats contest that. On the other side, Republicans who support the bill say that they would like the approximately 0 million of federal funding, which contributes to the $1.3 billion of total funding Planned Parenthood receives, to be re-distributed to organizations including community health centers that provide similar services to 21 million people. “Pope John Paul II talked about a “culture of death” two decades ago, in which he condemned widespread moral crimes like abortion and euthanasia that were viewed as individual rights”. The group says it abides by a law that allows providers to be reimbursed for the costs of processing tissue donated by women who had abortions.