Democrats cannot technically stop Republicans from defunding Planned Parenthood in an upcoming reconciliation bill, but they are going to do everything they can to make it very uncomfortable for Republicans to go through with it.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats didn’t waste any time holding a press conference to lambast their colleagues for using reconciliation– the vehicle to repeal Obamacare– to defund Planned Parenthood.
“This is the first shot in what is going to be a battle leading into reconciliation,” said Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). “Frankly, what I am going to be doing every single day now leading into reconciliation is trying to wake up the conscious of other folks. … This cannot be allowed to happen. Too many people will suffer.”
Paul Ryan’s announcement that defunding Planned Parenthood would be part of the reconciliation bill came earlier Thursday. Because reconciliation bills only require a simple majority in the Senate to pass, Democrats don’t have much leverage unless they can convince Republicans to vote against their leaders.
“The only way you stop it is by fighting back,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) told TPM. “And that’s what we’re going to do. Look, I was surprised that in the middle of them talking about the budget reconciliation, all the nominations, everything they’re also doing, they thought they could just slip this in and we wouldn’t notice it. Clearly this has been on their agenda to do. Pence came over yesterday. I don’t know what happened there, but we’re telling them ‘I don’t care when you announce it, we’re fighting back.'”
It was still unclear if Senate Republicans– especially Senate Republican women who have expressed concerns about defunding Planned Parenthood in the past– would go along with House Republicans’ plan.
“I know that Republican women here don’t want their party to be known as the party that takes away a woman’s ability to make their own health care choices,” Murray said.
HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said that he wasn’t sure if Planned Parenthood would be included in the Senate Obamacare repeal measure when he was asked about it earlier in the day.
“Well, let’s see. We’re still writing [the legislation],” he said.
“It was still unclear if Senate Republicans– especially Senate Republican women who have expressed concerns about defunding Planned Parenthood in the past– would go along with House Republicans’ plan.”
The only way these women will stop this is if they believe it will cost them their seats, it is up to the folks they represent in their states to let them know how they feel about this.
Apparently, not all Constitutional rights are created equal.
Imagine the reaction if the Democrats tried this with guns.
It’s also worth noting that by providing sex education and contraception, two things the Republicans oppose, Planned Parenthood prevents far more abortions than they provide.
The Republicans are abortion enablers. Without Republicans, abortions would likely be relatively rare.
This proves what Rethugliklans have said all along: There is NO war on women.
What a lying sack of shit. The Rethugs have a laundry list to hurt as many people as quickly as possible.
Many women voted GOP, so they deserve this. Women non-voters and third party nihilists too.
Goddamn. You’re a vacuous, pathetic antagonistic asshole. You’re a troll who only comes here to pick fights. Shouldn’t you be celebrating the latest celebrity death right now? Seriously, fuck you. You threadjack and hector. You lecture others about the need for “critical thinking” or how some posters have weak insights, but you’re the pus-brained Putin-puller who had the keen insight that David Bowie and Prince were both untalented hacks. Again, fuck you. You deplete from every post you appear in, your every utterance is insipid and sucks the life from the conversation.
Finally, most women don’t deserve anything this shitty world throws at them. How dare you. And one more tim: go fuck yourself, pedestrian blowhard.