Author Topic: The Planned Parenthood Fight Republicans Don’t Need But Can’t Avoid  (Read 865 times)

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Offline TomSea

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The Planned Parenthood Fight Republicans Don’t Need But Can’t Avoid
By Ed Kilgore

Among the many issues participants in the International Women’s Day strike are concerned about is the availability of women’s health services, including abortion services. And so it is appropriate that political heat surrounding Republican plans to kill federal funding for Planned Parenthood is one of several challenges threatening the new House GOP blueprint for repealing and partially replacing Obamacare.

It is unclear at this point how many Republican members of Congress would actually vote against the American Health Care Act — as Trumpcare is formally known — solely on grounds of its Planned Parenthood “defunding,” though at most it would be a few House members and two senators (Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska). Collins is the only surviving Republican senator to have voted against the “dry run” Obamacare-repeal legislation of 2015 (subsequently vetoed by President Obama) on grounds of its Planned Parenthood provisions. If this were the only controversy surrounding AHCA, it probably would not be fatal, even if Collins and Murkowski both defected, since two Democratic senators, Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have voted to defund Planned Parenthood in the past.

But the real peril represented by the conservative obsession with destroying Planned Parenthood is that it might only take one defector — again, Collins is the most likely — in combination with other senators who have other issues with AHCA to deny Republicans the 50 votes they need. So far the ACHA, which is being opposed by a vast array of advocacy groups, including such major forces as AARP, is not tempting any Democrats to cross the line to give Republicans a cushion. Thus if, say, Rand Paul (who has denounced the new plan as “Obamacare Lite”) and Mike Lee oppose AHCA from the right and Collins opposes it from the left, it could be dead, even if Mitch McConnell and the White House somehow manage to keep waverers like Ted Cruz and Lisa Murkowski in line.

Continued: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/the-planned-parenthood-fight-republicans-cant-avoid.html