The conservative Wall Street Journal is calling on Republicans in Congress to pass legislation that funds the federal government at the end of the month, even if it includes money for Planned Parenthood, a women’s health and abortion services clinic that has come under fire by most Republicans.
After a series of undercover sting videos showed Planned Parenthood officials haggling over the price of aborted fetuses, some Republicans, including presidential candidate Ted Cruz, have said Congress should refuse to pass funding for the government that includes money for the clinic.
“Most Americans know the organization as a women’s health clinic, not as the country’s largest abortion provider,” reasoned the Journal in an editorial published Tuesday night. “The videos and congressional hearings are slowly changing that public misperception, but a standoff that becomes a shutdown will inevitably focus the public on the shutdown, not the videos.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitchel McConnell, R-Ky., has said that the GOP does not have enough votes to defund Planned Parenthood. President Obama, a Planned Parenthood ally, would also likely reject a bill that does not include money for the clinic.
The threat from some congressional Republicans is reminiscent of a showdown in 2013 that did result in a brief shutdown of the federal government, when the GOP tried preventing funding for Obama’s new healthcare law. Subsequent polls showed that Republicans took the blame for the shutdown, despite Obamacare’s unpopularity, although Republicans later increased their numbers in Congress in the 2014 election.
The Journal specifically called out Cruz, accusing him of threatening a shutdown to gain attention for his presidential campaign.
“Mr. Cruz in particular knows Congress can’t win a shutdown showdown with Mr. Obama,” the Journal said. “His purpose is to pose as a relentless fighter so he can ride frustrated GOP voters to the presidential nomination. Swing-state [Republican] senators are tolerable collateral damage.”
