The House is teeing up two votes targeting Planned Parenthood, planning to give them the final nod at a Rules Committee hearing Wednesday evening.
One of them, offered by Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., is aimed at averting a government shutdown by allowing conservatives to vote on defunding the women’s health and abortion provider for one year. The other bill from Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., would strengthen federal law protecting infants born alive after an attempted abortion.
The votes, which are expected Friday but could happen earlier, will be the first against Planned Parenthood the House has taken since an anti-abortion investigator released a series of videos highlighting how some of the group’s clinics provide aborted fetal tissue for medical research.
The Black bill, which the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday would reduce direct spending by an estimated $235 million over a decade, is an effort to placate conservatives who are threatening to oppose any bill to keep the government funded beyond Sept. 30 unless it strips federal funds from Planned Parenthood.
The legislation would end about $500 million in federal funds for one year to all of Planned Parenthood’s clinics, unless the group agrees to stop performing abortions entirely. About half of Planned Parenthood’s clinics currently provide abortions, although federal law prohibits them from using taxpayer dollars for the procedure.
Senate Democrats are sure to block the bill, and even if it passed, President Obama would almost certainly veto it. That’s why Republicans on the far Right, including the Heritage Foundation, are insisting the House defund Planned Parenthood in must-pass spending legislation, although that could result in a government shutdown.
The Franks bill amends an existing law protecting infants born alive after botched abortions, by specifying the care that must be given to the infant and laying out penalties for doctors who break the law.
