Abortion foes had hoped merely to hold their ground over the next two years, but now some of their wildest dreams might come true with Tuesday’s big Republican victories.
Topping their to-do list: defunding Planned Parenthood, the women’s health and abortion provider that receives more than $500 million in federal funds annually. Until now, Democrats have blocked defunding efforts, but Republicans have a pathway as part of a bill repealing Obamacare, which would require just a simple Senate majority to pass.
“We are teed up to defund Planned Parenthood,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser told reporters Wednesday. “We have all that we need now, because we have the perfect lineup.”
Defunding Planned Parenthood is among four abortion-opposing actions President-elect Donald Trump promised to take, in a pledge he signed during the campaign season under pressure from Dannenfelser and other anti-abortion leaders concerned about his commitment to their cause.
In that pledge, Trump also promised to nominate abortion-opposing Supreme Court justices and sign laws banning abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy and making permanent the Hyde Amendment prohibition on funding abortions with taxpayer dollars.
Those goals face greater obstacles, as they would require cooperation from Senate Democrats. While Republicans held onto a simple majority, likely holding 52 seats once Louisiana’s race is decided next month, most bills require 60 votes to pass.
Abortion foes say they will put heavy pressure on Republicans to approve only Supreme Court candidates who oppose abortion, in hopes of crafting a conservative slate to reverse the abortion-legalizing Roe v. Wade decision someday.
“We will fight for candidates that are clear that unborn children are covered by the protections of our founding documents,” said American Values President Gary Bauer.
But as Democrats are certain to oppose further restrictions on abortion, it’s unlikely Republicans will be able to pass a late-term abortion ban or make Hyde permanent within the next two years. Still, activists say they will still push for votes in the House, which could set the stage for passing such measures should Republicans gain more Senate seats in 2018.
“I think we need to have votes on this,” said Tom McClusky, vice president for government affairs at March for Life. “So when we do have a pro-life majority in the Senate that can pass legislation, the House is already trained to do this.”
And while the immediate goal of defunding Planned Parenthood is in sight for Republicans, their margins are thin in the Senate. Two GOP senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, support abortion rights, leaving Republicans with just 50 likely votes for such a measure. A tie would be decided by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a strong abortion opponent.
Defunding Planned Parenthood became a major goal for Republicans last year, when a series of undercover videos showed some of the group’s clinics supplying aborted fetal tissue to biomedical companies for research purposes.
It hasn’t been proven that Planned Parenthood broke any laws, and the group has since banned its clinics from being compensated at all for the tissue, but that didn’t stop Republicans from attacking the group and trying to block the federal funding it gets for non-abortion health services.
If Republicans succeed in defunding Planned Parenthood, the group would lose its largest revenue stream. Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said Wednesday that she will fight to ensure clinics stay open regardless of what happens next year.
“We will fight to make sure that Planned Parenthood health center doors stay open, and that people in this country can get access to basic reproductive health care, no matter their ZIP code, income, sexual orientation, race, religion, gender or country of origin,” Richards said.
Abortion foes interpreted the GOP victories as a rebuke by voters of Planned Parenthood. The group had doubled its election-year spending over 2014 in efforts to get Trump opponent Hillary Clinton and other Democrats elected. And earlier this year, it gave Clinton its first-ever presidential primary endorsement.
“Yesterday, the American people voted for change agents to respect and protect even the smallest and most forgotten among us, including our unborn brothers and sisters,” said David Daleiden, who made the undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood.
“We can all now unite around common-sense, consensus pro-life policies and leave behind the failed pro-abortion extremism of the past,” he said.
Clarke Forsythe, acting president of Americans United for Life, said voters “rejected” Planned Parenthood’s “extreme agenda.”
“In this election, the abortion industry aligned itself with Hillary Clinton in an unprecedented way, with abortion industry leaders like Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards playing a prominent role in the Clinton campaign,” Forsythe said.
