The Republican-dominated Congress, led by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), is planning to use their new budget measure to defund Planned Parenthood.
According to LifeSiteNews.com, the budget bill with the defunding measure is known as a reconciliation bill. Republican lawmakers are pursuing this kind of bill in order to hopefully limit the amount of time the bill can be debated and to prevent a Senate filibuster. A reconciliation bill requires only a simple majority in the Senate before going to the President’s desk for approval.
"Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill," Ryan stated, leaving no doubt about Republicans’ goal regarding funding for the abortion provider.
Not surprisingly, the new bill has drawn criticism from many Democrats, and from Planned Parenthood officials and supporters.
Some have even suggested that Republicans should keep their focus on what is assumed to be their main goal--repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act--and not allow this issue of defunding Planned Parenthood to come in the middle of that.
Many Republican lawmakers, however, view defunding Planned Parenthood as one of the more important first courses of action.
Planned Parenthood currently receives $553.7 million in taxpayer funding. Although the abortion provider claims abortions are only three percent of their services, they have admitted in their annual report that abortions actually make up 94 percent of their services.
Instead of giving funding to Planned Parenthood, Republican lawmakers hope to fund women’s community healthcare centers which provide services such as ultrasounds and cancer screenings, but which do not provide abortions.
Photo courtesy: flickr.com
Publication date: January 6, 2017
