[caption id=”attachment_87802″ align=”aligncenter” width=”4843″] AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
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Don’t get too excited, but the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate will be voting on defunding Planned Parenthood. However, despite Republican majorities, the proposal is unlikely to become law.
This is due in part to President Obama’s strong support for Planned Parenthood. The White House Press Secretary said that the president would veto the bill if it came across his desk.
The votes are in light of undercover investigative videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. The videos feature top Planned Parenthood employees and allege that they are illegally profiting from their sale of fetal body parts.
The Senate has already voted on defunding Planned Parenthood this session. A majority of the Senate, which included Democrats, voted to defund the group and instead fun Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). However, because of filibuster rules, the 53 votes were not sufficient to send the proposal forward.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood. While he voted against the proposal, it was a procedural vote so that it could be brought forward again.
McConnell has said that the vote will take place again. He cautioned on Kentucky WYMT’s program Issues and Answers, however, that it’s an “issue that awaits a new president, hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood.”
McConnell said he “would remind all of your viewers the way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it and the president has to sign it.” Such statements are consistent with McConnell’s unwillingness to shut down the government over the funding issue.
The Hill reported that the House is also gearing up for a vote. One such proposal may be a bill from Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), though a spokesman says there are “a couple of specific possibilities being discussed.”
Eighteen Republicans in the House have written a letter announcing they will not vote for any legislation which funds the federal government. Black is not one of them.
For those who wish to see Planned Parenthood defunded, it is likely they will have to wait until at least 2017.
