Bill blocked: Defunding Planned Parenthood fails in Senate
US News
Bill blocked: Defunding Planned Parenthood fails in Senate
Republican legislation to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood failed to gather enough support in the U.S. Senate on Monday, halting, at least for now, moves to punish the reproductive health group for its role in gathering fetal tissue from abortions for medical research. Senate Democrats succeeded in stopping the bill on a procedural vote. Sixty votes were needed to advance it in the 100-person chamber. It received 53 votes, with 46 senators opposing it. The Republicans’ efforts have intensified America’s long-running debate about abortion just as the 2016 presidential campaign is getting underway. Those efforts have angered many Democrats.
[The GOP vote to defund is just] one more piece of a deliberate, methodical, orchestrated, right-wing attack on women’s rights. And I’m sick and tired of it.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren
The outcome can still set the stage for the GOP to try again this fall amid higher stakes — a potential government shutdown that could echo into next year’s presidential and congressional elections. The derailed legislation was the Republican response to videos, produced by an anti-abortion group, Center for Medical Progress, showing Planned Parenthood officials dispassionately discussing how they sometimes provide medical researchers with tissue from aborted fetuses. The group has said the videos show Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for fetal tissue from abortions it performs. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing and has said it does not profit from fetal tissue donation.
