Senate kills rule meant to protect family planning funds

Senators approved the Republican legislation 51-50.

Reuters/Larry DowningPresident Obama speaks about the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, during a press briefing at the White House on December 14, 2012.

The rule prohibits states from withholding family-planning funding from providers for reasons other than their ability to offer family-planning services.

Republicans Susan Collins of ME and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with the Democrats against the bill, according to Politico.

Since inauguration, both houses of Congress have voted to annul thirteen Obama era regulations. The GOP-dominated House of Representatives voted in favor of undoing the non-discrimination rule on February 16.

It was the second time on Thursday that Pence used his role as the chamber’s president to end a deadlock.

Most recipients are women, and two-thirds have incomes at or below the federal poverty level, around $12,000 for an individual.

The Title X grants given to Planned Parenthood can not be used for abortion services. James Lankford, R-Okla. “States could choose to have Planned Parenthood as part of their Title X funding states should not be compelled to”.

Democrat Senator Patty Murray calls this cruel, saying “it would have [the] greatest impact on women and families who need it the most”.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) noted that in some areas of his state, “these clinics are the only family planning and preventive care services available”.

The measure is certainly welcome in that it returns to the states the discretion to deny Planned Parenthood funding on the basis of it performing abortions.

The Arkansas effort led to a federal lawsuit. In a late Thursday evening press release from Governor Andrew Cuomo, the U.S. Senate turned its back on the health and safety of women, keeping them from the “health services they are entitled to by law”. “Nor should they be forced to foot the bill for an organization like Planned Parenthood that has displayed such blatant regard for human life”, said Sen.

The New York Times notes that the Obama-era measure protected Planned Parenthood, guaranteeing that individual states could not decide to strip funding from the organization. “It does not mean states are suddenly allowed to discriminate against Planned Parenthood. I’m pleased we were able to take another chunk out of the Obama administration’s overzealous regulatory agenda”, he said.

“I have watched the Congress of the United States on television for eight weeks trying to rehab from spinal surgery – I know more about it than I knew about it when I was here”, Isakson joked. “Washington should not attempt to override decisions made in Little Rock or any of the 49 other state capitols, especially when it comes to public health”.