Sen. Ted Cruz is excoriating the Republican leadership in the House and Senate for failing to “lift a finger to defend life” by eliminating taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. Cruz’s speech on the Senate floor comes as the lawmakers voted, 77-19, to advance a bill to authorize government spending that includes funding for Planned Parenthood.
While 40 Days for Life claims that, as of Monday, it has saved 41 babies from abortion, Planned Parenthood is urging its clients to tweet about how great abortion is. Pro-lifers are countering that campaign with their own tweets.
In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Thursday, an attorney asserted that the Obama administration’s actions to protect Planned Parenthood has given the nation’s largest abortion provider a special privilege not given to other Medicaid providers, while also “robbing the states of control over their own state Medicaid programs to protect a politically powerful but ethically and legally challenged organization.”
Only one national pro-life leader is publicly taking the position that a bill to defund Planned Parenthood attached to must-pass legislation would be harmful to the pro-life cause. “[I] think Planned Parenthood is a vile organization, and I resent the fact that they get any tax money,” Tobias said. “But realistically, with President Obama in the White House holding that veto pen, I don’t know that any government shutdown could accomplish what we want. What we have to do is get a new pro-life president in, and we’d have a much better chance of actually taking away their money.”
More than 11,000 people participated in a pro-life webcast event saluting the work of David Daleiden, executive director of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), for his efforts to expose Planned Parenthood’s practices of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies and sell them on the open market.
Even after the release of a tenth video further exposing Planned Parenthood’s booming business in the sale of aborted baby parts, House Republican leaders who claim to be horrified at the abortion giant’s practices are still hesitant to eliminate its federal funding from a temporary spending bill for fear of being blamed by Democrats and the liberal media for a government shutdown.
Echoing McConnell’s words, the Ohio Governor said in New Hampshire Saturday and then argued on Fox News Sunday, that President Obama would veto any spending bill that transfers funds from Planned Parenthood to women’s healthcare facilities that do not perform abortions. Kasich warns that could make Republicans vulnerable if the government subsequently shuts down.
In a letter to the Thomas More Society public interest law firm, an attorney representing Office Depot says that the pro-life prayer its Schaumburg, Illinois store was asked to photocopy falls within the company’s definition of “hate material.”
The House Freedom Caucus affirms that its members oppose “any spending measure that contains funding for Planned Parenthood.” The statement comes as Republican leaders, hoping to avert a government shutdown, are facing strong opposition from House conservatives refusing to approve a budget that includes funding for the abortion giant. Planned Parenthood is currently under investigation by at least three congressional committees following the release of videos exposing its practices of harvesting the body parts of aborted babies for sale on the open market.
Office Depot has refused to print copies of a pro-life prayer on the grounds that to do so violates company policy of printing material that “advocates the persecution of people who support abortion rights.”
Two women who survived botched abortions during the 1970s testified Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation into Planned Parenthood’s practices following the release of a series of videos that exposed the group’s sale of body parts of aborted babies on the open market.
Though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Congress is without means to defund Planned Parenthood until a new president is in the White House, leading House Republicans still plan to schedule a vote to end taxpayer support for the nation’s largest abortion provider when House members return to Washington next week.
