US House of Representatives Republicans on Friday voted to deny funds to women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood for a year, but the action did little to quell party desires to use a spending bill as leverage in their fight to punish the group in an abortion controversy.
Congress adjourned for the weekend with an Oct. 1 government shutdown deadline fast approaching and no clear plan from Republican leaders for extending funding for federal agencies.
Many conservative Republicans had called for the stop-gap spending measure to deny funding to Planned Parenthood, but others in the party, aware of Democratic opposition, had said this would increase the likelihood of a second government shutdown in two years.
House Speaker John Boehner, trying to release some steam from his caucus, chose to delay consideration of a spending bill vote and put the stand-alone defunding bill to a vote, along with a separate measure aimed at banning abortions that involve live births.
Both measures passed easily, largely on party lines.
Planned Parenthood faces allegations, which it denies, of improperly selling fetal tissue from abortions. The non-profit group said Internet videos that have inflamed anti-abortion sentiment among Republicans “falsely” portray its participation in tissue donation programs for medical research.
Several House Republicans said the two bills passed on Friday would be blocked by Senate Democrats, and stronger action to stop Planned Parenthood funding might be necessary.
“I think you still need to continue to look at the funding mechanism as a potential vehicle to stop the murders,” said Representative Bill Flores, who heads a group of 172 House conservatives.
During debate of the two bills, Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney said the legislation “attempts to criminalize legal medical care and punish women by rolling back reproductive choices.”
Representative Richard Hudson said he was concerned that anti-Planned Parenthood policy provisions in the spending bill would prompt a shutdown without stopping the practices.
And Representative Roger Williams said: “There are people like me who can’t find a way to vote for anything that funds Planned Parenthood.”
The White House again called on Republicans to enter budget talks to ease automatic spending constraints, but said a short funding extension was still needed.
“I would not envision a long extension of funding at current levels, but rather enough time for Congress to finally convene the talks, reach an agreement and implement it,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
Planned Parenthood is the US’ largest women’s health care services provider.
Public funding accounts for about 40 percent of the budget for Planned Parenthood’s 700 or so clinics, which provide medical services, including breast exams and other screenings, and conducts millions of tests for sexually transmitted infections.
The group’s abortions are funded through private sources, a distinction that Republicans insist is illusory. US law has long prohibited the use of public funding for virtually all abortions.
Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted the House vote to defund the group as “an attack on women’s health — nothing more, nothing less. Republicans should be ashamed.”
The Senate is expected to vote on Tuesday on a bill that bans all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but Democrats have the numbers to defeat it. The abortion dispute threatens to disrupt haggling over funding for the new fiscal year.
Additional reporting by AFP
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not