[caption id=”attachment_146338″ align=”aligncenter” width=”3865″](Martin Falbisoner/Wikimedia)
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The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on a 20-week ban on abortion. The House version passed in May with a vote of 242-184.
Sen. Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) considers the timing of the abortion ban to be purposeful, as Pope Francis will be visiting Washington, D.C. this week.
“I guess they want to do that before the pope gets here,” Reid said last week, according to The Hill.
On Friday, the House passed two abortion bills. One will defund abortion provider Planned Parenthood for one year; the other has to do with babies born alive from abortion.
The defunding bill passed the House at a critical time for Congress. There is only a short time left to pass a spending bill, and there is a possibility of a government shutdown over funding Planned Parenthood.
Congress has also been investigating Planned Parenthood in light of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress. The videos allege that Planned Parenthood is illegally profiting from sale of fetal parts. Politico reported that Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards is expected to testify before the Oversight Committee on Sept. 29.
The abortion issue mostly divides members of Congress depending on their political party. Though they did pass with bipartisan support, the votes on the House bills mostly fell along party lines. The Senate proposal on the upcoming abortion ban does not have any Democratic sponsors.
When he was Senate Majority Leader, Reid failed to bring such a ban to a vote. And his comments now suggest that he believes the Republicans are merely trying to conduct a show vote for the pope.
President Obama has threatened to veto any of the abortion bills, and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest criticized the GOP for their “fascination” with Planned Parenthood.
The Democratic Party may consider the abortion issue to be a waste of time, but Republican members have not seen it that way.
Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) is one such member. He voted for both House bills, and also serves on the Judiciary Committee, which earlier this month began its investigation into Planned Parenthood.
Marino said the issue of funding Planned Parenthood, “should not be a partisan one.” He adds that, “this issue is really about being good stewards of the American taxpayer’s money. More importantly, it is about preserving the value of life.”
Marino said harvesting and selling body parts and tissue from aborted fetuses “is akin to the brutal depictions of gruesome science fiction movies or the bleak, totalitarian and oppressive futures written about in novels.”
While Planned Parenthood supporters warn that defunding the organization would put women’s health at risk, Marino had stronger words for them. “This has nothing to do with a woman’s health and everything to do with the exploitation of young mothers and unborn children.”
He mentioned that in light of Planned Parenthood’s willingness to be engaged in such a “despicable behavior,” and do to so with the use of American taxpayer money, is “predatory and an insult to millions of Americans who abhor their actions.”
The federal government must be funded by Oct. 1. Whether Congress can come together in time to do so will heavily depend on the abortion issue.
