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House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood
February 18, 2011 - by Donny Shaw
The Republican House of Representatives took their latest shot at limiting access to abortions today by passing an amendment to their 2011 government funding bill that would defund Planned Parenthood. There amendment has some big problems, however, and it’s very unlikely that it will become law.
First, the Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats, will never agree to this. Some Republicans — namely Sen. Olympia Snowe [R, ME] and Sen. Susan Collins [R, ME] — have even said that they would oppose an attempt to block Planned Parenthood from receiving funding. Senate Democrats are confident they have the votes to block this.
The second problem is that it is clearly unconstitutional. Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution forbids Congress from passing bills of attainder, i.e. laws that punish a specific individual or group that have not been given a judicial trial. The Republicans passed a similar bill of attainder last year against the community organizing group ACORN that resulted in the federal government being sued. The Republicans may want to repeat that, but nobody else does.
One more thing to be clear on here. Planned Parenthood does not receive federal funding for abortion services. That has been against the law since 1974. They currently receive funds for other health care services, like cancer screening and family planning. But abortion services are subsidized exclusively by private donors. This amendment is about killing Planned Parenthood, not about blocking public abortion funding. That’s already blocked.
By the way, the full roll call details are not yet available, but according to Politico, “The vote was 240-185 with 11 Democrats voting for the amendment, and seven Republicans voting against. One member voted present.”
UPDATE: The full roll call has finally been published and can be viewed here.
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Comments
Displaying 1-30 of 68 total comments.
I love how liberals only invoke the Constitution when it benefits them. Congress did the exact same thing with health care last year! Dems were all for punishing those “evil” health insurance companies. And of course Planned Parenthood uses Federal money for abortion! Instead of paying for the actual procedure, they pay for the room, the lights, the water, the doctors, the surgical equipment and anesthesia. Sounds like ILLEGAL funding to me!
“invoke the Constitution when it benefits them”, funny that’s exactly what we think about Republicans.
Did what with Health Care last year?
With your “logic” we have commit murder through the death penalty, kill innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, support crooked cops, politicians, etc. Sounds like we’ve committed multiple federal crimes to me!
Yes pretty ridiculous comment isn’t it.
anesthesia is paid for by the patient. So is the doctor.
To go along with the commenter about your logic, if a school has a shooting, that means the school paid for the murders! it was their building after all, their teachers, their lights…
and like the other guy said Republicans are using the Constitution RIGHT NOW to attack the health care law, they also made it so laws passed must have Constitution reference on legality.
So you’re seriously complaining about liberals using the Constitution when republicans made it the rules to follow it when making laws?
If this was an attack on that other comment that used a similar first line, that guy was right, many times conservatives quote the Constitution to stop laws but will avoid it when they want to push their views, they take the good and refuse the bad.
It’s like a college kid asking his uncle to pay for his trip to Vegas, via having his uncle pay for a new transmission for his broken car, He asks his uncle for money to fix his car rather then canceling his trip so in turn his uncle paid for the vacation but it looks like he paid to fix his nephews car.
That doesn’t pay for the gas… and his car will be working for years afterwards. better than buying a new car later on though when it completely dies.
plus vagas is for entrainment, not health care like pap smears and cancer testing.
The cuts would eliminate funding for birth control, cancer screenings, and HIV testing, among other things.
According to Tracey Brooks, president of Family Planning Advocates of New York State, federal funding does not go to support Planned Parenthood’s abortion services.
Get your facts straight.
Glad to hear that it won’t be getting far. I’ve depended on PP for healthcare when I couldn’t find work, and I’ve been able to refer my sister to them for free birth control while she’s in college and can’t afford her co-pays.
PP saves lives and saves the government money.
Yeah, they save lives by killing babies. Apparently, the abortion doctor in Philadelphia who killed little live babies on counter tops with scissors and then kept their severed little feet in jars is your hero. PP is a murder mill and my tax dollars should not support it. You want your little sis to go and get free pills so she can sleep around? Good for you, but you can subsidize that nonsense, not the rest of us.
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1) Sleep “around”? Maybe she’s only sleeping with “one” person, but doesn’t want to have children. Are opposed to recreational sex?
2)“Murder mill”? Planned Parenthood spends 3% of it’s budget on abortion. That hardly makes a “mill” for abortion.
3)Are you a vegan? Because if you aren’t, that would make you’re anti-abortion stance hypocritical.
4)By your logic no one’s tax dollars should pay for anyone’s self-induced health problems? Got the flu? Well, maybe you should’ve washed your hands more often? Got high cholestreol? Well, maybe you shouldn’t have eaten so much fatty foods? Got, diabetes? Maybe, you shouldn’t have eaten so much carbs.
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I love how conservatives invoke the constitution when it benefits them. They don’t want the government interfering in our lives… unless you’re a woman. They don’t want to pay for abortions or the children of low income women… so they make it so there will be more of both. They complain about horrid back alley abortion clinics… so they make it so there will be more of those, too. In the mean time they’re all for tax cuts for the rich and famous, spending wasted money on birther lawsuits, and funding their tea parties.
Remember how free condoms on college campuses and stuff like that use to be so controversial? How is giving subsidized birth control any different? Newsflash the free condoms that i can get from my college are subsidized with your and mine tax dollars.
(To the conservative users, note that when i say free i studied economics, there is no such thing as “free”). Your and mine tax dollars go to preventing me from having a child before i am ready and then drain resources of society should i need aid before the time comes.
It goes to the theory of “an ounce of prevention”.
if nothing is free yet condoms are offered with no out of pocket direct expense to those who wish to receive them, why should my taxes be used to fund abortions of those who chose not to take the proper precautions. while getting volunteer hours as a pre med student, i accepted and position at a PP during my time there more than once, i received a file on a few young women who were there for another abortion. one had even been there 5x in only 2 years. even as a true conservative i believe that abortion does have its place in our society. however, the availability of these services are abundant and are unfortunately being used as the easy solution instead of condoms or birth control or abstinence. which is completely wrong.
and many places provide free condoms including most major universities in which the condoms are actually payed for by the students health fee that is included in their tuition
If she had 5 abortions, woudln’t that cause some health problems? Regardless, that’s exactly why I don’t want federal funds covering elective abortions. Sure, it’s only a minority that have multiple abortions because they could, but if denying the minority means denying the majority who only have 1 or 2 elective abortions throughout their life, then that’s the cost in my opinion.
*Elective abortions in this regard ARE NOT abortions that are paid for under the Hyde Amendment.
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Wow, it’s being edited SO much, if you want to find the text that evidently isn’t postable go to: thomas.loc.gov, search for bills/amendments for Mike Pence, and go to page H1156.
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Wait, which funds are you talking about? They make over $1 a year in donations, state, local, and federal funds, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
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yes, it makes up 1 billion, 1/3 is federal(state/local level varies in what they add), 1/3 donations and 1/3 money from services.
the amendment blocks funds from going to PP but also ends basically all Title X funding, the money taken away from PP is not going anywhere.
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4.) Since they are a 501©(3), it can die. I don’t care either way if it does or doesn’t, but nothing says a non-profit has to stay afloat. If it’s as important as everyone thinks, and as useful and efficient as everyone hopes, then I have full faith it will stay alive just like all the other 501’s in America who don’t use federal funds to do good works.