Three Republican senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski(R-AK) weren’t about to let their party gut Planned Parenthood without a fight.
Collins led the charge on Senate floor Thursday announcing that defunding Planned Parenthood could lead to “the closure of several hundred clinics across the country, depriving millions of women of the health care provider of their choice.”
Collins amendment was to strike language in the Senate’s budget reconciliation bill, which redirected money from Planned Parenthoods to other community health clinics. Republican leaders included the defund language as a statement against Planned Parenthood, which sting videos alleged was selling fetal tissue.
Planned Parenthood has denied those accusations.
The reconciliation package, which included language to gut Obamacare is expected to be vetoed by the president.
But, moderate Republicans especially those running for re-election in swing states like Kirk had reason to be worried that the mere optics of voting to defund Planned Parenthood sent the wrong message back home. After all, Planned Parenthood does more than provide abortions. The clinics offer women health screenings and access to birth control.
In other news, hell froze over this morning…
Mark Kirk is up for re-election here in Illinois. So not exactly a profile in political courage nominee.
For Kirk yea
But such is ‘pragmatism’
Good on Collins and Murkowski (Kirk is up for re-election in a tight race) – but they still get part of this wrong. In many cases, PP is the only choice available to women. That makes the effort to defund even more draconian and just plain hateful.
Federal funding of abortions was prohibited by congress years ago. What the Repugs are trying to do here is withdraw Medicaid reimbursements for other health services provided by Planned Parenthood and thereby shut down the PP clinics. The enemy they are attacking here is not only PP, but poor women.
Further, redirecting money from Planned Parenthood clinics to other neighborhood clinics is a joke. “Other neighborhood clinics” would very likely be unable to handle the increased caseloads resulting from a shutdown of Planned Parenthood clinics.
Kudos to Senators Kirk, Collins, and Murkowski for standing up to their fellow party bullies and working to prevent this travesty.