How Planned Parenthood could shut down the government

[Mockingbird]

Calling next week’s Senate roll call to defund Planned Parenthood a “legislative show vote,” GOP firebrand Ted Cruz said Republicans should do everything they can to eliminate federal money for the group — even if it means a government shutdown fight this fall.

He’s not alone. On Wednesday afternoon, 18 House Republicans told leadership that they “cannot and will not support any funding resolution … that contains any funding for Planned Parenthood.” Meanwhile, GOP social conservatives like Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma and Jeff Sessions of Alabama said they’d consider supporting an effort to attach a spending rider that would eliminate Planned Parenthood’s $528 million in annual government funding to must-pass spending legislation this fall.

It’s a potentially ominous sign for GOP leaders desperate to avoid another shutdown debacle. While Cruz may be radioactive in the Senate GOP conference after calling his leader a liar, his analysis of next week’s vote has merit: With Democrats vowing to block the measure, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) won’t be able to get the 60 votes he needs to advance the bill next week, a result that likely won’t satisfy a conservative base itching for confrontation over abortion.

In a Wednesday interview, Cruz said the GOP should go as hard as it can to block funding for Planned Parenthood, including the same strategy he tried to use to defund Obamacare in 2013: force the issue by blocking funding in a government spending bill that must pass by Sept. 30.

Asked whether he would support such a maneuver again, Cruz replied: “I would support any and all legislative efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. We do not need a legislative show-vote.”

On the other side of the Capitol, Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) said dozens of House Republicans will back his effort to oppose any spending bill — whether a continuing resolution stopgap or longer-term funding package — that includes any money for Planned Parenthood.

“This is one of those line-in-the-sand type of issues,” Mulvaney said Wednesday. “Every time we say we don’t want to spend money on something, the answer is it will provoke a shutdown.”

This weekend, Senate conservatives had pushed to attach defunding provisions to the must-pass transportation bill, but now they are shifting their sights to this fall’s government spending bill. Lankford, both a social conservative and an ally of leadership, said he’d support defunding Planned Parenthood “wherever he can get it,” and Sessions said Republicans “don’t need to take no for an answer” after Democrats reject the GOP defunding bill next week.

“Congress doesn’t have to fund any program it doesn’t think is justified. How does it get to be that a minority of the Democrats can dictate that a majority party has to fund programs it doesn’t believe in?” Sessions added. “We don’t need to go at it halfheartedly.”

Democrats say the GOP efforts will be futile. Republicans lost a 2011 fight to defund Planned Parenthood and a 2013 push to defund Obamacare plunged the government into a shutdown. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said a repeat of that show would be “gridlock” — but other party insiders warned the results could be even more consequential.

“The immovable object is about to meet the unstoppable force: Republicans cannot pass a bill that funds Planned Parenthood and congressional Democrats and President [Barack] Obama cannot vote for or sign a bill that defunds it,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide.

But many Republicans aren’t willing to go there yet, including the recipient of Cruz’s “show-vote” diss, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who’s working with Lankford, Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and party leaders to set up next week’s vote to slash Planned Parenthood’s funding.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/government-shut-down-planned-parenthood-120787.html

[DocM]

It looks like some Democrats are fed up with Planned Parenthood too as it looks like the funding cutoff has 58 votes, 2 short of stopping a filibuster. Of course they only need 51 if the Republicans pull the same kind of stunt Democrats did with Obamacare.

The real problem here is that in a recently released hidden camera investigative video the doctors cut the limb out from under themslves and Planned Parenthod with their comments about how much money they'd get per dead fetus, and if they'd get more money by cutting it up and selling it piecemeal. That and under US transplant law selling organs, including fetal body parts, is illegal. 

This has people on both sides and the middle upset.

Edited July 30, 2015 by DocM

[compl3x]

I thought everyone would have learned from the last gov. shutdown just how bad an idea it was. 

[DocM]

The last shutdown was because a divided Congress couldn't agree within itself. If this gets through the Senate the House will agree, so the only way a shutdown would happen is if Obama triggers it by vetoing the  budget.

[redfish]

I'd find nothing wrong with a clean vote on de-funding Planned Parenthood. But I don't like that they're trying to attach it as a rider to other bills. Cruz wanted to attach it to the highway funding bill, and, if I'm not mistaken, the Sept. 30 bill that the article is referring to is a bill funding the Dept. of Homeland Security. That kind of tactic is really part of the problem in D.C.

At any rate, if they want to go after Planned Parenthood, the right way to do it is to investigate them and bring them to court. If everything said in the videos is accurate, PP is likely in contravention of the 1993 law which was passed to allow fetal tissue use. A provision of the law states that abortion procedures shouldn't be modified with the intent of procuring the organs.

[Mockingbird]

I wonder how long until would be until someone post something that uses this logic:

Plan Parenthood kills fetuses

fetus = baby

killing baby = murder

murder = bad

------

And hence Planned Parenthood must be defunded.

Edited July 30, 2015 by illegaloperation

[DocM]

Most people in the US are opposed to Planned Parenthood's  "any age without adult consent, any reason, any time right up  to labor" policy on abortion. Even some of the medical societies oppose it on the last point. Others look at the subsidy as corporate welfare.  Still others see its founding philosophy: eugenics, targeting minorities in particular.

Either way, and especially if they're selling body parts which is illegal, they've made a lot of enemies.

[redfish]

Most people in the US are opposed to Planned Parenthood's  "any age without adult consent, any reason, any time right up  to labor" policy on abortion. Even some of the medical societies oppose it on the last point. Others look at the subsidy as corporate welfare.  Still others see its founding philosophy: eugenics, targeting minorities in particular.

Either way, and especially if they're selling body parts which is illegal, they've made a lot of enemies.

If Planned Parenthood is being singled out, the only real issue is whether they're in fact doing anything illegal. They're given grant money under Title X, which helps clinics other than PP. So, de-funding them in particular wouldn't end any corporate welfare, and if they're targeted, it shouldn't be based on any of the beliefs the organization holds.

On the other hand, Republicans haven't only been trying to de-fund PP but the Title X program in its entirety,

http://appropriations.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=394272

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) The bill includes over $6 billion for HRSA – $299 million below the fiscal year 2015 enacted level and $413 million below the President’s budget request. The bill eliminates all funding for the controversial Family Planning Program, saving taxpayers nearly $300 million. 

Though, its true that non-abortion family planning services might be a little redundant now that health insurers are required by the ACA to pay for contraceptives.

[remixedcat]

The people that are against PP don't make any damn sense.

PP doen't even perform abortions at most of thier facilities! Only like 10% of the facitlities even offer such a service most of what they do offer is stuff like pap smears, pills, and condoms and STD tests.

Also would you rather, as taxpayers pay thousands of dollars a month to support unwanted kids x however many or would you rather spend 10-20/mo for birth control pills for each woman?

 

Guys can get viagra and other meds like that on the taxpayer's dime but women can't get "the pill".... pisses me off.

[DeadEndAccount]

The people that are against PP don't make any damn sense.

PP doen't even perform abortions at most of thier facilities! Only like 10% of the facitlities even offer such a service most of what they do offer is stuff like pap smears, pills, and condoms and STD tests.

Also would you rather, as taxpayers pay thousands of dollars a month to support unwanted kids x however many or would you rather spend 10-20/mo for birth control pills for each woman?

Goes back to why the US needs a single payer healthcare system and free contraceptives for all along with comprehensive sex education but alas too many Americans believe that if you teach people about sex then they're more likely to do it. Hence, that is the US for you unfortunately and I don't see what notion changing any time soon.

Most people in the US are opposed to Planned Parenthood's  "any age without adult consent, any reason, any time right up  to labor" policy on abortion. Even some of the medical societies oppose it on the last point. Others look at the subsidy as corporate welfare.  Still others see its founding philosophy: eugenics, targeting minorities in particular.

Either way, and especially if they're selling body parts which is illegal, they've made a lot of enemies.

There is a reason for "any age without adult consent, any reason, any time right up  to labor" and it shouldn't need explaining - imagine a girl in a family where she has been abused by a close family relative with very little in terms of support by her family; she is forced to have a child because her parents would sooner believe she is a 'slut' than a relative abused her? really, this has been re-hashed as a discussion so many times I don't even known why it is bought up.

[redfish]

Guys can get viagra and other meds like that on the taxpayer's dime but women can't get "the pill".... pisses me off.

The ACA requires health insurance pay for contraception without co-pay, including birth control pills.

Btw, Medicare doesn't cover Viagra; Congress passed a bill in 2006 that prevented prescriptions for ED for being covered. Sometimes ED drugs are prescribed to treat medical conditions like pulmonary hypertension, just like birth control drugs are prescribed to treat medical conditions like endometriosis.

[compl3x]

There is a reason for "any age without adult consent, any reason, any time right up  to labor" and it shouldn't need explaining - imagine a girl in a family where she has been abused by a close family relative with very little in terms of support by her family; she is forced to have a child because her parents would sooner believe she is a 'slut' than a relative abused her? really, this has been re-hashed as a discussion so many times I don't even known why it is bought up.

It's a bit of a moot point anyway because those who fundamentally oppose abortion for any reason, under any circumstance (rape, incest, pregnancy a serious health risk to mother) would still oppose PP.

 

 

[TPreston]

 Either way, and especially if they're selling body parts which is illegal, they've made a lot of enemies.

Don't forget the pimp video

[chrisj1968]

Read up on Margaret Sanger. She started Planned parenthood under a different name back in the day. Source

1) “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”

2) “I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan.”

3) “They are…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ’spawning… human beings who never should have been born.”

Black lives matter has the wrong people in their sights. But why is the government paying to support this agency? it all started as a way to kill off the black population yet, black lives matter missed the educational aspect.

[Mockingbird]

I don't know why a lot of social conservatives are against contraceptives.

While my old high school does provide free contraceptives, the reaction is more of a "ya, it's there." than "you should get some!"  I have a feeling that they don't really want to be handing out contraceptives.

And if you were wondering, my aunt is pretty grouchy right now and her fiancé is well... you know. Thank goodness that's a no return policy.

[mudslag]

Read up on Margaret Sanger. She started Planned parenthood under a different name back in the day. Source

1) “We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”

2) “I accepted an invitation to talk to the women’s branch of the Ku Klux Klan.”

3) “They are…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ’spawning… human beings who never should have been born.”

Black lives matter has the wrong people in their sights. But why is the government paying to support this agency? it all started as a way to kill off the black population yet, black lives matter missed the educational aspect.

What ever reasons PP was created for 75+ years ago, does not equate the same reasons it exists today.

[Mockingbird]

 

What ever reasons PP was created for 75+ years ago, does not equate the same reasons it exists today.

It's also why the modern Republican Party is not the Party of Lincoln, but the Party of Nixon.

[chrisj1968]

 

What ever reasons PP was created for 75+ years ago, does not equate the same reasons it exists today.

It does. however, during that time, it has secured government funding. So it clearly is entwined within the government and ROE vs Wade ruling of 1973. just follow the bread crumbs

[mudslag]

It does. however, during that time, it has secured government funding. So it clearly is entwined within the government and ROE vs Wade ruling of 1973. just follow the bread crumbs

 

What are you rambling on about? The earlier version of PP started back in 1916, gov funding didnt start til 1970 under Nixon and Roe vs Wade was in 73. The only bread crumbs are the ones in your lap. Loosen the tin foil, you got it wrapped to tight. 

 

[compl3x]

Shutting down the government is not a trivially political manoeuvre and shouldn't be invoked over the funding of one particular organisation. Apparently the government was also almost shutdown in 2011 over this same issue. 

[gameboy1977]

would you eat fetus soup in China?   ewww! No way! I hate that China!  If the baby have AIDS inside  just like dogs or cats have rabies too.....

[PGHammer]

To all that are insisting on funding for late-term abortions, IF the father of the child had a clue, he could have gotten a condom - if not from a pharmacy, they ARE available at any free clinic (most health centers are co-ed, and there are MEN's health centers as well).  The funding for men's health is ALSO provided by Title IX.  Therefore, there is NO excuse for men, either.  My issue with late-term abortion is that it is more dangerous - for the woman - than abortion done earlier, which not even Planned Parenthood disputes!  I'm pro-choice; however, LTA is way too risky for even me to stomach.  Has anyone done a risk-assessment between LTA and a Caesarian at the same period of pregnancy?  Is there a reason why an LTA is the ONLY option, as opposed to a Caesarian/adoption tag-team?  (Yes - Caesarians are also risky - the question I am asking is that which is the GREATER risk to the mother?)

[bguy_1986]

I thought everyone would have learned from the last gov. shutdown just how bad an idea it was. 

Refresh my memory.  What happened?  It wasn't as bad as all the doom and gloom that was said about it if I remember right.  Probably depends on who you talked to (or listened too) I guess.

I think there will come a time when the government will be shutdown, not because we can't agree, but because there are too many greedy people on both sides of the isle that don't care about what happens with our money.  We keep going into debt and nothing ever changes to help with that.  Nobody seems to care about it.

[Tonicgoofy]

I really don't see anything wrong with anything that happened. Conservative will always try to find stupid ways to defund Planned Parenthood.

But the thing is Planned Parenthood is needed, and saves a lot of lives (No I do not consider a fetus a life). They provide services that are needs outside of abortion (which are needed too).

 

If you want to cut funding, then allow them to sell the fetuses for research we need it.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Tonicgoofy

[chrisj1968]

 

What are you rambling on about? The earlier version of PP started back in 1916, gov funding didnt start til 1970 under Nixon and Roe vs Wade was in 73. The only bread crumbs are the ones in your lap. Loosen the tin foil, you got it wrapped to tight. 

 

not to insult anyone's intelligence, planned parenthood went by another name or perhaps other names but planned parenthood has gone I'm sure by other names