Appearing at a DeKalb County GOP sponsored picnic Saturday at Greenbrook Park, Congressman Diane Black spoke of the U.S. House vote Friday to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood for a year and to curb some abortion practices.
The Planned Parenthood “de-fund” bill, sponsored by Congressman Black, passed 241-187, on a nearly party-line vote.
The debate over Planned Parenthood’s federal funding stems from a series of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress that show high-ranking officials discussing the alleged sale of fetal tissue and body parts of aborted babies.
“I am a nurse. I have been a nurse for almost 45 years now. I was young and out of nursing school when the decision was made by Roe v Wade. For the last almost 43 years I have been fighting for life. What we saw happen on the floor (U.S. House of Representatives) just yesterday (Friday) was something that I have been waiting to see for over 42 years. We were able to get a vote on the floor to at least put a moratorium on Planned Parenthood’s funding so that we can do the investigations to tell whether there really has been laws that have been broken behind the curtain called Planned Parenthood,” said Congressman Black.
“As a nurse I look at those films and I see three things that are pretty definitive that shows the law has been broken but we will have hearings. We’ve also asked Loretta Lynch, who is our U.S. Attorney General to do those investigations. But we’re doing our investigations. Here are the three things. One is the NIH Revitalization Act that says you cannot alter a procedure for the purpose of obtaining fetal tissue separately from what you would do in an ordinary case . We can see very clearly that is being done. You cannot sell fetal tissue for a profit and we see the haggering over the price and that is also against the law. And the third is partial birth abortion and we see clearly that there are, at least from those films, some suspicions that this is what is going on,” Congressman Black continued.
The bill would place an immediate moratorium on all federal funding to Planned Parenthood while Congress investigates the organization for potentially illegal actions. Under the legislation, funds would be reallocated to the more than 13,500 clinics nationwide that provide primary care to low-income and underserved populations and do not perform abortions. Additionally, the bill, as amended, would increase funding to community health centers by $235 million during this one-year period.
While the measure was adopted in the U.S. House, Congressman Black said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already indicated he won’t even try to bring the measure to the Senate floor. “Mr. McConnell has said he will not bring this up in the Senate. We’re putting a lot of pressure on him and just yesterday we had a couple of our senators come out and say they are going to put pressure on the leader to bring this up. We’ve got to keep the pressure on. If you would like to call our senators and let them know you want them to put the pressure on McConnell do so. But it is going to be my job for the next month to beat the drum and say bring it up. Let’s get a vote and then let’s put it on the President’s desk and I dare him to veto something that is showing illegal activity. He is in love with Planned Parenthood and he will veto it. But it’s worth the fight,” said Congressman Black.
McConnell said in an interview Friday he will back a plan to fund the government into December with no conditions, but rejected calls from within his party to defund Planned Parenthood as part of a larger budget bill.
“It’s an exercise in futility,” the Kentucky Republican said of a strategy that would likely provoke a government shutdown. “I’m anxious to defund Planned Parenthood” but “the honest answer of that is that’s not going to happen until you have a president who has a similar view.”