House of Representatives votes to cut off all funding for Planned Parenthood.
The Associated Press is reporting that the U.S. House of Representatives has voted to end all federal support for the Planned Parenthood family planning organization. According to AP the 240-185 vote is a victory for Republican Party abortion foes, led by Indiana Rep. Mike Pence who argued that taxpayer dollars should not go to organizations that provide or promote abortion.
It is already against the law for Planned Parenthood and other clinics to use federal funds to pay for abortions. But the bill passed today would, if it becomes law, bar all federal funding for the organization’s non-abortion related family planning activities. According to the New York Times, the total funding ban would amount to $317 million, with Planned Parenthood losing $75 million that the organization uses to fund family planning assistance for low income women.
The debate in the House last night on the issue included a dramatic statement from California Congresswoman Jackie Speier who was so upset by remarks from anti-abortion Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, that she talked about an abortion she had because of medical complications.
“That procedure you talked about was a procedure I endured,” she told Smith. “But for you to stand on this floor and to suggest, as you have, that it is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous.”
