A bill to defund Planned Parenthood got more support from Senate moderates earlier this week than it did four years ago, fueling the ambitions of abortion foes to build support for a ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy later this year.
The Senate ultimately rejected a measure on Monday to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood clinics, amid ongoing congressional investigations into whether the women’s health and abortion provider broke the law by profiting from aborted fetal tissue donations or violated medical standards by modifying how they conduct abortions.
But in the process, Republicans managed to win over two Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and got at least an initial nod from two of the Senate’s three Republicans who generally support abortion rights.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted in favor of starting debate on the bill so they could offer their own amendment to cut funding only from individual clinics found to have acted illegally.
“Murkowski was a pleasant surprise,” said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that seeks to elect female candidates who oppose abortion.
Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois sponsored the amendment, too, but voted against moving the defunding bill forward.
The last time the Senate voted on defunding Planned Parenthood, the measure failed with 42 votes and no support from any Democrats. Five Republicans, including Kirk, Murkowski and Collins, defected from their party to oppose it.
But this time around, a series of recent undercover videos highlighting Planned Parenthood’s involvement in fetal tissue collections gave the effort more momentum, as the footage has kept the group under the spotlight for weeks and raised questions of illegal activity.
Quigley said her group had heavily lobbied Murkowski to support the defunding bill this time around, and now it’s ramping up pressure for her to support a major abortion ban the Senate plans to vote on after lawmakers return from August recess.
“I have long supported Planned Parenthood because I believe it offers important family planning, cancer screenings and other health services to thousands of men and women in Alaska and across the country,” Murkowski wrote on her Facebook page shortly after the vote. “But my support is not unconditional. If Planned Parenthood or its affiliates have engaged in illegal activity it is not to be condoned.”
Murkowski hasn’t yet said whether she would vote for the next abortion-related measure, known as the “pain-capable” bill. It would ban most abortions 20 weeks after conception based on the idea that’s when a fetus can start feeling pain.
The measure is almost certain to fall short of the 60 votes it would need, but abortion opponents are still lobbying members hard. Of the Senate’s five or so potential “swing” votes, only Manchin has pledged support.
Donnelly voted for a similar measure when he was in the House but has stayed mum since he’s joined the Senate. So has Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who generally opposes abortion rights, but voted against defunding Planned Parenthood both times.
Collins has also ducked questions of whether she would vote for the 20-week ban, saying in June that it shouldn’t be “the priority.”
Collins was careful to say Monday that she doesn’t support defunding all Planned Parenthood clinics across the board, but would rather withhold funding only if they violated the law. Planned Parenthood and abortion rights advocates strongly have defended themselves amid the controversy, saying they’ve engaged in no wrongdoing.
