These Seven Senators Will Decide if the Senate Totally De-Funds Planned Parenthood

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 2, 2015   |   7:20PM   |   Washington, DC

The Senate will vote early Monday evening on a new bill has been introduced that will totally de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business. The legislation follows four shocking videos that have caught Planned Parenthood doctors discussing and arranging the sale of body parts of aborted babies.

Following pro-life Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s announcement of a working group, Senator Joni Ernst and Senators Rand Paul  and James Lankford, along with 21 cosponsors, introduced legislation to protect women’s health and defund Planned Parenthood, S.1881.

Democrats are expected to filibuster the bill – forcing Senate Republicans to come up with 60 votes to invoke cloture and end debate on the pro-life measure. Because two Republicans have said they support Planned Parenthood funding and Democrats like Senator Bob Casey, who claims to be pro-life, are not willing to support the bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood, Democrats are expected to sustain their filibuster and prevent passage of the de-funding measure.

But pro-life groups hold out hope that a last-minute deluge of calls and emails to a handful of senators could make the difference.

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must De-Fund Planned Parenthood Immediately

While most members of the Senate are strongly pro-life and support yanking taxpayer funding from the nation’s largest abortion business, there are seven members of the Senate — three Republicans and four Democrats — who are considered the most likely to support de-funding Planned Parenthood. Unfortunately, some of them have already announced publicly they intend to back funding for Planned Parenthood despite the fact the abortion company sells the body parts of aborted babies.

Here are the seven senators who need to hear from you in the next 24 hours. If you live in their states, it’s time to pick up the phone and call now to ure them to vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

Republicans:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, (R-AK) 202-224-6665
Sen. Mark Kirk, (R-IL) 202-224-2854
Sen. Susan Collins, (R-ME) 202-224-2523

Democrats:

Sen. Joe Donnelly, (D-IN) 202-224-4814
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, (D-ND) 202-224-2043
Sen. Bob Casey, (D-PA) 202-224-6324
Sen. Joe Manchin III, (D-WV) 202-224-3954

Brian Burch of CatholicVote is urging people to turn out calls and emails as quickly as possible.

“Public pressure is mounting to defund Planned Parenthood. A vote to cut off taxpayer funding is now scheduled for the Senate this coming Monday. We need you to call your two Senators today,” he said. “Four undercover videos have shown high-ranking officials from Planned Parenthood engaged in the negotiating, sales, and trafficking of baby body parts. The evidence suggests that Planned Parenthood is violating existing federal laws. That’s why we need public hearings. The funding must stop so Congress can get to the bottom of this now.”

“You don’t have to be a pro-life activist to realize that it’s wrong for American taxpayers to give over $500 million in taxpayer money to an organization accused of such heinous acts against children,” he said. “Democratic Senators are expected to mount a vicious fight to prevent the Senate from getting to a final vote. That’s why if you live in Alaska, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia your call is especially important.”

Don’t see your Senators on this list? Find the phone numbers of your two Senators right here: https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

Burch continued:  “How strongly is public sentiment against Planned Parenthood? So much so that even Hillary Clinton felt compelled to call what was revealed in the videos “disgusting.” But Hillary’s line was totally phony. Within 24 hours, she publicly announced: “I stand with Planned Parenthood.”

“Planned Parenthood has received billions of taxpayer dollars over the decades, and has many friends in the media, and on Capitol Hill,” he concluded. “But these videos have awakened the American people to what’s going on behind the closed doors of Planned Parenthood. We have to seize this moment and defund this abortion giant.”

Not only does the bill de-fund Planned Parenthood, it takes the taxpayer dollars that had been slated for the abortion business and sends them to legitimate women’s health care. The bills transfers funding from Planned Parenthood and sends it to agencies that provides for women’s health services including relevant diagnostic laboratory and radiology services, well-child care, prenatal and postpartum care, immunization, family planning services including contraception, sexually transmitted disease testing, cervical and breast cancer screenings, and referrals.

The bill cites state and local health departments, federally backed community health centers and other providers of health services to women who might get the money instead of Planned Parenthood. In fact, there are over 9,000 non-abortion health centers that provide the same or better women’s health care services as Planned Parenthood:

Leading pro-life groups like National Right to Life are strongly supporting the de-funding bill.

“Senator Ernst’s bill would push the snout of Planned Parenthood, a bloated abortion mega-marketer and a fetal organ trafficker, out of the U.S. Treasury feeding trough,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life.

The bill states, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be made available to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, or to any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, or clinics.”

Johnson told LifeNews.com that the bill also contains language to provide that “all funds no longer available to Planned Parenthood will continue to be made available to other eligible entities to provide women’s health care services.” In other words, any funds removed from Planned Parenthood would be reallocated to women’s health services provided by others (but such funds cannot be used for elective abortions).

PPFA is the nation’s largest provider of abortions – about one-third of all abortions in the U.S. are performed at PPFA-affiliated facilities. PPFA also receives at least $528 million annually from the federal government or other levels of government, he explained.

Ernst and other pro-life lawmakers explained why they support the bill.

“As a mother and grandmother, I find this footage of Planned Parenthood’s role in the harvesting of the organs of unborn babies morally reprehensible and vile,” said Senator Ernst. “The American people are horrified by these videos as well. Simply put, this legislation ensures that funding for women’s health is protected and that taxpayer dollars will not go to Planned Parenthood.”

“The calloused harvesting of body parts shows a complete disregard for human dignity. We cannot care more about animal cruelty than the inhumane treatment of children in the womb,” said Senator Lankford. “It is self evident that we should honor life and stand against the harvest of human organs.  If Planned Parenthood sold unique human organs to research labs, by definition they had to be unique human lives in the womb when they were aborted. It is time for federal taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood to end and let community health centers use that funding to provide health care services for those in greatest need.”

“The horrendous videos of senior executives from Planned Parenthood discussing in callous tones and shocking detail their role in a national scandal requires a congressional response,” said McConnell. “Our constituents demand it; the unborn deserve it. This legislation would ensure taxpayer dollars for women’s health are actually spent on women’s health—not a scandal-plagued political lobbying giant.”

Cosponsors of the bill include Senators John Barrasso (WY), Roy Blunt (MO), John Boozman (AR), Richard Burr (NC) Dan Coats (IN), Tom Cotton (AR) John Cornyn (TX), Ted Cruz (TX), Steve Daines (MT), Mike Enzi (WY), Deb Fischer (NE), James Inhofe (OK), Johnny Isakson (GA), Ron Johnson (WI), James Lankford (OK), John McCain (AZ) Mitch McConnell (KY), Jerry Moran (KS), Rand Paul (KY), David Perdue (GA), Pat Roberts (KS), Ben Sasse (NE), Tim Scott (SC), and John Thune (SD).

SIGN THE PETITION! Congress Must Investigate Planned Parenthood for Selling Aborted Baby Parts

As LifeNews reported, the first video of undercover footage shows Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, describing how Planned Parenthood sells the body parts of aborted unborn children and admitting she uses partial-birth abortions to supply intact body parts.

In the second video, Planned Parenthood doctor Maru Gatter discusses the pricing of aborted baby body parts — telling the biotech company officials that the prices for such things as a baby’s liver, head or heart are negotiable. She also tells the officials that she could talk with the Planned Parenthood abortion practitioners to potentially alter the abortion procedure to kill the baby in a way that would best preserve those body parts after the unborn child is killed in the abortion.

A total of 12 states have already launched an investigation including South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Massachusetts, KansasMissouri, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Texas and Louisiana and members of Congress have launched an investigation as well.

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