WASHINGTON — Two standalone bills have been filed in the House and Senate, and at least one legislative amendment presented in the past week, to strip Planned Parenthood of its $584 million in federal funding.

Other congressional Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a presidential candidate, have vowed to present new legislation to defund Planned Parenthood in the wake of two undercover videos that show high-ranking Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale and harvesting of fetal body parts from abortions.

“Not one more taxpayer dollar should go to Planned Parenthood, and I intend to make that goal a reality,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who introduced an amendment to a federal highway bill on July 22 to strip the abortion giant of federal tax dollars.

But while leading Republicans pushed to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading abortion provider’s political allies in Washington raced to its defense and denounced the Center for Medical Progress, the nonprofit group responsible for the undercover videos.

“For more than a century, Planned Parenthood has provided essential services for women,” Hillary Clinton said during a July 23 campaign stop in Greenville, S.C.

Clinton, the presumptive favorite to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, also said she thought it “unfortunate that Planned Parenthood has been the object of such a concerted attack for so many years. And it’s really an attack against a woman’s right to choose.”

The dueling political reactions are to be expected, but the growing controversy and scrutiny over Planned Parenthood amounts to what may be the most significant public crisis the abortion giant has experienced since Margaret Sanger, an outspoken eugenicist, founded the organization in the early 20th century.

Three Republican-led House committees have initiated probes into whether Planned Parenthood is violating federal law that prohibits the for-profit sale of adult and fetal body parts. Federal law does allow for “donations” of those same body parts for reasonable expenses.

The outcry over the undercover videos — in which Planned Parenthood officials haggle over the price of fetal body parts and casually discuss organ harvesting over dinner and glasses of wine — has led to calls from Republicans and pro-life Democrats to defund Planned Parenthood of federal tax dollars, which constitute just over 40% of the organization’s $1.2-billion-a-year operation.

Planned Parenthood receives federal money through Medicaid, the public-health insurance program for low-income Americans, and the Title X Family Planning Program, which is used to subsidize birth control, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and other reproductive-health services.

“Currently, we are providing federal dollars to an organization that is in a position to influence a woman to choose abortion and then the organization can profit from her decision,” said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America.

Day added, “Most Americans are opposed to taxpayer funding of abortion, and decades-old law supports that notion. There needs to be a complete separation between one organization that counsels women seeking abortion and another organization that harvests the organs. This practice invites deception and corruption.”

 

Moratoriums and Hard-to-Veto Actions

Making similar arguments, U.S. Rep. Diane Black, a Republican from Tennessee, has introduced H.R. 1314, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015. The bill would place an immediate moratorium on all federal funding of Planned Parenthood for one year, while Congress conducts a full investigation into the organization’s activities.

In a July 21 speech, Black, a nurse for more than 40 years, said Planned Parenthood has “blood on its hands.”

“Over the last week, we’ve seen multiple videos showing its employees brazenly discussing the harvesting of aborted babies’ tissue and organs. But the truth is: Planned Parenthood’s culture of depravity runs much deeper than a couple of videos,” said Black, who has sponsored legislation since 2013 to withhold Title X grants from health-care providers that perform abortions or give funds to organizations that do.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, filed a similar bill to strip funding from Planned Parenthood for one year, unless the organization ceases performing abortions. Lankford’s office said his bill would allow more federal dollars to go to organizations like community health centers that serve low-income populations and provide direct health care to women across the country.

“While the government investigates Planned Parenthood to determine if their practice of adapting their abortion procedures to harvest the organs of children violates federal law, they should not continue to receive taxpayer money,” said Lankford, who has also signed on to two letters to President Barack Obama’s administration regarding investigations into Planned Parenthood.

Senators Paul of Kentucky and Cruz of Texas have also pushed to defund Planned Parenthood by inserting that provision as an amendment to broader legislation, like the highway bill, which Obama would have difficulty vetoing. But whether the Republican leadership in the House and Senate allows those amendments to proceed remains to be seen.

Speaker John Boehner declined to answer reporters’ questions about how Planned Parenthood funding could affect a short-term funding bill to prevent a government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

“Listen, I’ve seen these two videos. They’re gruesome, and I think they’re awful,” Boehner said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “That’s why the Energy and Commerce Committee and Judiciary Committee are doing an investigation. I expect that we will have hearings, and the more we learn, the more it will educate our decisions in the future,” Boehner said.

 

White House: Planned Parenthood Has ‘Highest Ethical Standards’

Meanwhile, leading Democrats have been unequivocal in their support for Planned Parenthood, which has sought to rally political support.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest on July 22 dismissed the allegations against Planned Parenthood, telling reporters that the organization holds itself to “the highest ethical standards.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi defended Planned Parenthood against what she described as a phony controversy manufactured by Republicans. Pelosi said: “They’ve been out to get Planned Parenthood for as long as I can remember. This is about women’s health. Planned Parenthood has said they have done nothing illegal. They were not ever charged.”

Also, four congressional Democrats have written to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and California Attorney General Kamala Harris asking them to investigate the Center for Medical Progress, which conducted the undercover probe of Planned Parenthood.

“I believe the Center for Medical Progress may have broken the law in developing and executing this unbelievably elaborate and troubling scheme, and all Americans should have concerns about that,” said U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois.

On July 22, Lynch said that the U.S. Department of Justice would review “all the information and determine what steps, if any, to take at the appropriate time.”

 

Common Sense

However, Lankford, the senator from Oklahoma, said the recent videos uncovering Planned Parenthood’s “inhumane” abortion practices “have hit a nerve with many Americans.”

Said Lankford, “This is a sensitive topic for many, and I am aware our nation is divided on the issue of abortion, but it is common sense that we shouldn’t force taxpayers to assist the harvesting of human organs.”

Register correspondent Brian Fraga writes from Fall River, Massachusetts.