Sen. Ted Cruz will hold a telephone town hall with church leaders Tuesday to discuss his plan for defunding Planned Parenthood.
“Recently, all of us have seen the videos of the behind-the-scenes dealings at the Planned Parenthood facilities, activities that all of us find horribly offensive,” Cruz said in a video invitation to the national conference call. “But even more appalling is that we as taxpayers are funding these activities.”
Cruz has been an outspoken critic of Planned Parenthood subsidies since a series of undercover videos shed light on the organization’s policy of donating fetal tissue to researchers.
“Only our pastors, our faith leaders, our church leaders, have enough influence to put a stop to this ongoing Holocaust,” Cruz said.
The Texas Republican vowed “to lead the fight in the United States Senate to defund Planned Parenthood, even while investigations continue” in an op-ed published in USA Today Thursday.
Cruz pressed for an ultimately unsuccessful procedural vote on a measure to end federal funding for the nonprofit before the August congressional recess.
He has encouraged Senate leadership to attach a provision defunding Planned Parenthood to an upcoming spending bill before the end of September, when government funding runs dry at the end of the fiscal year.
Some have expressed concerns that the tactic could lead to a government shutdown over the Planned Parenthood debate.
