Rand Paul raises the question: Are Republicans really pro-life?

Defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services, has long been a primary battlefront for pro-life activists, who rightly argue taxpayer dollars should not go to an organization that does something so many Americans find morally objectionable.

Even among my libertarian friends, some who are pro-choice (for the record, I’m pro-life), many agree public money should not subsidize a procedure that more than half the country believes is morally wrong.

Paul introduced an amendment to an appropriations package Thursday that would defund Planned Parenthood specifically, but keep federal funding for women’s health service organizations that do not perform abortions. “There are over 10,000 community health center facilities across the country, providing health services to more than 27 million patients – compared with 2.4 million who use Planned Parenthood services,” claimed the press release from the senator’s office.

But Paul’s amendment was thwarted. “My amendment would end funding to Planned Parenthood,” Paul said on the Senate floor. “My amendment is already included in the House version, and yet my amendment is now being blocked by Republicans.”

Why would a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, something Republicans have campaigned on for basically forever, be stopped by a Republican-controlled Senate?

“The Republican leadership has filled the ‘amendment tree’ to block my defund Planned Parenthood amendment, but how can that be?” Paul asked in his Senate speech. “Surely Republican leadership doesn’t favor abortion funding? The answer is a curious one.”

Then Paul directly targeted his own party’s hypocrisy:

The “welfare-warfare state” indeed.

What are Republicans’ real priorities?

Paul’s fiery speech resulted in GOP leadership relenting (which is unusual, because how often do House and Senate floor speeches take place in an empty chamber and to little effect?) and a vote was allowed on the amendment.

It failed, 48-45. Pro-choice Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, predictably voted against it, but so did the minority of pro-life Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., who is in a tight re-election race.

But the amendment failing isn’t the real story. That virtually every Republican voted to defund Planned Parenthood isn’t the real issue here either.

The larger question remains this: Why would a Republican-led Senate squash an amendment to do something virtually every Republican, from President Trump to members of Congress, have vowed to do? Some might complain that this was not the right way to accomplish this objective. But Republicans have controlled the Senate for how long now? When is the right way going to manifest itself?

When are Republicans going to deliver on this basic agenda item that has long been promised to their pro-life constituency? They have the White House and Congress—for now.

“Unfortunately, many Senators who claim to be pro-life defied their constituents and the consensus of the American public by giving the abortion industry a pass,” said March for Life President Jeanne Marcini in a statement from her organization. “Almost two-thirds of Americans say they do not want to fund abortion with their tax dollars,” she added.

This really is just as much a spending issue as it is about life.

As Rand Paul asked on the Senate floor, “The question is, what is more important to these Republicans? Saving lives or spending money?”

This is a question Republican voters, both pro-lifers and fiscal conservatives, should continue to ask in the midterm elections and beyond.

Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Senator Rand Paul.