Democrats in the U.S. Senate yesterday defeated on a 56-44 vote a Republican-sponsored bill that would have cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other family planning programs across the country.
Before you go thinking that’s all done with, great and thanks … well, don’t Republican mean to keep trying to cut funds and Congress is nowhere near having a final budget.
“We commend fair-minded senators for rejecting the anti-choice House leadership’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and dismantle the nation’s family-planning centers,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “Unfortunately, the Senate action coincides with a War on Women in the House that continues to escalate. This extreme and far-reaching agenda is a wake-up call to Americans, who are realizing just how much time and energy anti-choice lawmakers are willing to expend attacking a woman’s right to choose instead of focusing on the jobs agenda that they promised Americans.”
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to eliminate Planned Parenthood, which provides contraception, medical services, and abortions at 800 clinics in the nation from receiving federal funds on Feb. 18. The threat to the organization has prompted protests around the country.