Last month, LifeNews.com profiled a pro-abortion Republican senator who says she will oppose the bill to defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Now another pro-abortion Republican senator says she will also oppose the legislation. Senator Susan Collins of Maine says she wants to split the defunding Planned Parenthood provisions from the bill to repeal Obamacare. If Republican leaders don’t do that, Collins plans to vote against the legislation entirely.
Together, the two pro-abortion Republican Senators could potentially derail the entire process to both repeal abortion-funding Obamacare and defund the Planned Parenthood abortion company.
Republican leaders are still working on the final language of the legislation, but the general thought is Republicans will use the reconciliation budgetary process to pass the bill as they did last time to both defund Planned Parenthood and repealed Obamacare. Pro-abortion President Barack Obama ultimately vetoed that legislation.
SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately
Some leading pro-life lawmakers want that exact legislation brought back. But, as the Hill reports, it is a no-go for Senator Collins.
“I don’t think it makes sense to have the defunding of Planned Parenthood linked to this issue at all,” said Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from Maine who voted against the repeal effort in 2015 because it included language defunding Planned Parenthood.
“If the House Republicans want to bring it up, it should be in a separate bill. I would oppose that bill, but it further complicates the negotiations to have it included in this bill.”
Because Republicans are going to repeal ObamaCare through reconciliation, a special budget maneuver that only needs 50 votes to pass because it can’t be filibustered, they can only lose two votes from their members.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a pro-abortion Republican from Alaska, has already said definitively she won’t support repeal if it includes Planned Parenthood language.
“I, for one, do not believe that Planned Parenthood has any place in our deliberations on the Affordable Care Act,” Murkowski said. “Taxpayer dollars should not be used to pay for abortions, but I will not vote to deny Alaskans access to the health services that Planned Parenthood provides.”
The news is not a surprise. Murkowski has defended the abortion giant Planned Parenthood numerous times. In 2011, she stood up for the abortion group’s taxpayer funding even after undercover videos showed staff at Planned Parenthood assisting alleged sex traffickers in getting abortions and STD testing for the girls they victimize.
Then in 2015, Murkowski joined two other Senators to try to strip a Planned Parenthood defunding provision from a similar Senate bill, according to The Hill.
In January, House Speaker Paul Ryan said the bill to repeal Obamacare also would cut off taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood and other abortion groups. The bill also would redirect tax dollars to federally qualified community health centers to ensure people have access to quality health care.
A recent survey found that community health centers not only provide more comprehensive health care than Planned Parenthood, excluding abortions, they also outnumber the abortion group’s facilities by 20 to one.
The U.S. Senate took the first step in paving the way for a vote on defunding the Planned Parenthood abortion corporation in early January. The Senate approved on a party-line vote a budget resolution bill. This repeal resolution is the first step in the process to re-direct Planned Parenthood’s taxpayer funding to legitimate health care entities and repeal Obamacare using the budget reconciliation procedure.
President Donald Trump promised to sign a bill that would defund the Planned Parenthood abortion business.
Recent polls also indicate Americans support the defunding efforts. New polling found 56 percent of Americans in battleground states want Planned Parenthood defunded.
ACTION: Contact U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Contact Senator Susan Collins.
