Planned Parenthood to testify before Congress

Chaffetz lashed out at the organization for what he called “exorbitant” spending for salaries, travel, parties and lobbying. “I realize, though, that the facts have never gotten in the way of these campaigns to block women from health care they need and deserve”, Richards told the committee. “It’s a political organization”.

Republicans have targeted Planned Parenthood for years, but secretly recorded videos that raised questions about the organization’s handling of fetal tissue provided to scientific researchers have outraged anti-abortion Republicans and put them on the offensive against the group.

Abortion foes say the videos show the group breaks federal laws barring for-profit fetal tissue sales and altering abortion procedures to obtain usable organs.

“They sought to infiltrate Planned Parenthood affiliates and tried unsuccessfully to entrap Planned Parenthood physicians and staff for almost three years”.

It’s a move that has many conservatives upset. The organisation receives about a third of its $1.3bn annual budget, around $450m, from federal coffers, chiefly reimbursements for treating Medicaid patients.

A showdown in Washington is on Tuesday, as the head of Planned Parenthood meets with Congress. The stopgap measure would require Democratic votes to pass.

“It is essentially a blank check to Barack Obama, that’s not very clean to me”.

Richards and Planned Parenthood supporters have blasted the heavily edited videos – released throughout the summer and produced by conservative activists at the Center for Medical Progress – as inaccurate.

The audience witnessed bitter partisan exchanges between lawmakers that have typified their reactions to the videos.

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups issued the temporary restraining order during a hearing, allowing the money to keep flowing while the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah seeks a longer-term injunction. The videos show a few individuals speaking callously about harvesting and selling fetal tissue.

“American taxpayer money should be redirected to fund local community health centers and not subsidize a scandal-ridden, billion-dollar abortion business”, Kerri Kupec, legal communications director for Alliance Defending Freedom said in a statement.

Republican leadership “reflexively surrenders”, Cruz said.

Several Republican presidential hopefuls have condemned Planned Parenthood for the procedures. He then pivoted to his argument that the government should spend more on cancer screening and research while ending funding for Planned Parenthood.

It goes to a final vote Tuesday or Wednesday. Last week, after pressure from state senator Kurt Schaefer – who was relatively moderate and in favor of academic freedom until he wanted to be attorney general – the school announced it would revoke the privileges of a doctor who performs non-surgical abortions at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia.