Abortion foes typically welcome any woman who sides with them, but there is one female Republican they don’t want seated on the new committee investigating Planned Parenthood.
Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, who is facing a tough, conservative primary challenger, led a last-minute insurrection earlier this year against a major abortion ban the House was poised to pass, angering many fellow Republicans and anti-abortion activists who had worked hard for the legislation.
Now, she’s seeking a spot on a special new committee created Wednesday by House Republicans to investigate Planned Parenthood, in the wake of undercover videos highlighting its involvement in supplying aborted fetal tissue for medical research.
“As a sitting member of the Energy and Commerce Committee with a background in nursing, she would be an excellent candidate for this select committee,” Ellmer spokeswoman Blair Ellis told the Washington Examiner.
But Ellmers is the last legislator many activists want on the panel. They privately fear that after her unexpected objections to a bill banning most abortions midway through pregnancy, she could prove volatile and unpredictable on a committee charged with leading the GOP probe against the country’s largest abortion provider.
In January, on the same day as the annual March for Life protesting abortion, the House was on the cusp of passing what’s known as the “pain-capable” bill, which prohibits most abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy. Republicans had lined up the two events to make a bold statement about late-term abortions, which a majority of Americans oppose.
But Ellmers, in a surprise move, rallied a number of Republican women to oppose the measure based on its requirement that for women who are raped to get an exemption from the ban, and obtain an abortion, they first must report the crime to law enforcement.
House GOP leaders were ultimately forced to cancel the vote, in an embarrassing defeat for abortion foes who had made the bill their flagship legislation this year. Both the House and Senate have since passed modified versions of the bill, but activists haven’t forgotten Ellmers’ rebellion.
“Ellmers … torpedoed a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks gestation,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, calling her reason for opposing it a “slap in the face” and a “bogus excuse.”
Hawkins blasted Ellmers for seeking a seat on the Planned Parenthood panel, saying leadership should refuse her request.
“Now that the North Carolina congresswoman has thoroughly discredited herself with pro-lifers, she is angling for a position on a committee that will investigate Planned Parenthood,” Hawkins said. “What a complete farce.”
“She’s totally unpredictable,” said one anti-abortion advocate familiar with the formation of the committee. “No one, including leadership, knows what will come out of her mouth.”
Ellmers’ congressional office declined to respond to the charges.
Jim Duncan, a former county Republican chairman seeking to unseat Ellmers next year, also has criticized Ellmers for both her opposition to the original 20-week ban and her efforts to join the select committee.
“I think she is not the person that needs to be on there,” said Duncan spokesman Sean Moser. “It doesn’t strengthen the conservative piece for the pro-life movement … she’s probably not the icon they want sitting in that committee hearing.”
