Statement from Fr. Frank Pavone: Planned Parenthood DeFunding: There is More than One Way to Do It, and It Will Happen

[TomSea]

Statement from Fr. Frank Pavone: Planned Parenthood DeFunding: There is More than One Way to Do It, and It Will Happen
 Priests for Life
May 02, 2017         

Many people have asked me about the spending bill that was recently passed by Congress and why it does not already defund Planned Parenthood.

The commitment of our friends in Congress, and of the President, to defunding Planned Parenthood has not wavered. In fact, the House has already voted to let the states defund Planned Parenthood (as did the Senate, and the President signed it recently), and the House also voted to prevent all taxpayer funding of abortion. The President also has taken executive action to stop funding Planned Parenthood internationally.

So I am very encouraged by what has happened so far.

As for defunding Planned Parenthood domestically on the federal level, there is more than one way to do it, and the pro-life members of Congress are currently figuring out what avenue they want to use. The proposed new health care law, which they are trying to re-introduce as soon as possible, provides for the defunding of Planned Parenthood, and they are not backing away from that. There can also be standalone bills that simply defund Planned Parenthood independently of considerations about funding other aspects of the government or legislating on health care overall.

The point to be kept in mind here -- and it is a technical procedural point about which most people will be unaware -- is that the members of Congress have a limited window of opportunity right now to utilize a procedure, called "reconciliation," by which they can get a measure passed both in the House and the Senate by a simple majority vote. This bypasses the filibuster, which Senate Democrats can use to block Republican efforts, and which takes 60 votes to overcome -- votes the Republicans do not have.

Continued: http://www.priestsforlife.org/library/7383-planned-parenthood-defunding-there-is-more-than-one-way-to-do-it-and-it-will-happen