Ripping the nearly 99-year-old Planned Parenthood organization for performing abortions and selling fetal tissue, the GOP has made de-funding the women’s health clinics a key part of the 2016 campaign. Almost all GOP candidates boast of de-funding Planned Parenthood in their states. Using incendiary pictures and videos of aborted late-term fetuses, the GOP-dominated House voted 241-187 blocked the groups $45O million in federal funding, in a $1.3 billion budget. Threatening to shut down the government if Democrats insist on funding the group, Republicans ripped the group for performing abortions, harvesting and selling fetal tissue. “What does it say about this Congress that today we’re here on the House floor debating the killing and harvesting of aborted babies?” asked Rep. Martin Stutzman (R-Ind.). “How can there possibly be two sides of this?” asked Stutzman rhetorically.
Stutzman and other pro-life elected officials have tried for years to reverse the 1973 Supreme Court landmark ruling Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion in the United States. Pro-life advocates can’t see the wisdom it letting women and their doctors decide what to do with women’s reproductive health, including, a woman’s choice to abort unwanted pregnancies. Pro-life advocates see life as beginning at conception, viewing abortion as an act of murder. Pro-life groups push heavily edited videos showing late-term aborted fetuses kicking-and-screaming, something cited in CNN’s Sept. 16 debate by 61-year-old former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Whether or not fetal tissue was ever sold by Planned Parenthood is anyone’s guess. It’s inconceivable that PP’s management would risk $450 million in federal funding over illegally selling fetal tissue to genetic laboratories.
Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz complained about her GOP colleagues turning Planned Parenthood into a political football. GOP officials look to use Pope Francis’s upcoming visit to New York and Philadelphia to hammer home their opposition to Roe v. Wade. Using the Pope’s visit to fire up the Republican base and advance the 2016 political agenda shows the extremes to which GOP goes to get their way. Threatening to shutdown the government Sept. 30, the GOP wants Planned Parenthood’s funding removed before agreeing to any increase in the debt ceiling. “Enough is enough,” said Wasserman-Schultz, with the GOP’s threat to shutdown the government. Only the most extreme right wing Republicans seek to reverse Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that gave women the legal right to chose abortion.
Citing video-enhanced images of late-term abortions, Fiorini did exactly what she had to do to fire up the GOP base: Attack Roe v. Wade. Dragging the Pope into the conversation is a cheap shot, when you consider Roe v. Wade is already established Constitutional Law. Picking on Planned Parenthood makes good headlines, despite the fact that little or no federal money goes for abortions. “Some of their members are willing to risk women’s lives just to score some political points,” said Wasserman-Schultz, drawing Democrats’ contrast with Republicans. If conservatives get their way in the House, they’ll trying to link the debt ceiling to de-funding Planned Parenthood, something that would meet a presidential veto. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), both fierce opponents to Roe v. Wade, don’t have the votes to override Obama’s veto.
Reversing Roe v. Wade would not only make abortion illegal, it would imprison doctors that performed routine D&C’s to terminate pregnancies. Claiming the GOP is the party of limited government, what could be more intrusive than inserting social and religious conservative into women’s health and medical decision-making. Showing that GOP primaries cater to the most extreme parts of the Party, some conservatives threaten to upend Boehner and McConnell if they don’t block funding to Planned Parenthood. Whatever continued funding bill emerges from Congress, conservatives want it linked to de-funding Planned Parenthood. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) sponsored a bill that would impose up to five years in prison for doctors refusing to save babies lives in late-term abortions. Watching concocted anti-abortion propaganda videos has spread mass hysteria in Congress.
Pandering to religious and social conservatives, Fiorina shows a prodigious skill at milking conservatives to prop up her campaign. Citing pro-life propaganda videos as gospel, Fiorina shows, whether she believes it or not, she knows how to score points with the GOP base. GOP candidates had “manufactured a witch hunt,” said Rep. Sam Farr (D-Calif.), pushing heavily edited pro-life videos. “Stop being so mean. Solve problems, do not create them,” warned Farr, regarding GOP attempts to reverse Roe v. Wade or shutdown the government Sept. 30. Whipping up an anti-abortion frenzy before the Pope’s visit, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) took out a sledge hammer. “In the face of these videos, with all the alternatives women have for health, why would you want to force your constituents to pay for something so evil?” pushing hard to de-fund Planned Parenthood.
