http://www.nationalreview.com/node/422119/print How the Fight to Defund Planned Parenthood Could Lead to Another Government Shutdown
By Joel Gehrke — August 6, 2015
Pro-life activists will have a powerful influence on whether the government shuts down this fall.
A string of undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of organs taken from aborted babies has the nation’s largest abortion provider on defense. Social conservatives are united in their desire to strip the organization of taxpayer funding but disagree on how best to accomplish that goal given the possibility that a legislative push for defunding could prompt another government shutdown. Whatever they decide, the onset of the 2016 presidential election guarantees they’ll find champions in the Senate.
One of the most influential social conservatives in Iowa favors a reprise of the 2013 fight to defund Obamacare. “Planned Parenthood’s game is over,” says The Family Leader president Bob Vander Plaats. “So, I would jerk the funding. I’d put [defunding language] on a continuing resolution. If I’m running for president, I’d be the first one to offer that.”
Vander Plaats supported the last two GOP winners of the Iowa caucuses, and his endorsement could play a key role in how the state’s social conservatives vote in 2016. “Whoever is seen as the leader on Planned Parenthood is going to win that fight, because that is a core portion of the electorate,” says an adviser to one presidential contender.
His suggestion might appeal especially to Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who was the driving force behind the Obamacare fight. “We should use any and every procedural means we have available to end funding for Planned Parenthood,” Cruz told reporters Monday evening.
That would seem to include language stripping the funding from a continuing resolution — the legislation that keeps government funding at current levels while Republicans and Democrats debate budget changes — even though the government would shut down if Obama vetoed such a measure. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has vowed not to allow a repeat of the 2013 shutdown, which most Republicans regard as a political disaster for the GOP (albeit a short-lived one, given the results of the 2014 midterms).
Congressional Republicans may come under pressure from national pro-life groups, as well, particularly given that the videos, released by the Center for Medical Progress after a two-and-a-half-year investigation, have already convinced two Senate Democrats to join with Republicans in voting to defund Planned Parenthood, to the delight of pro-lifers. “Just because people reacted one way about a shutdown previously, maybe they’ll think differently this time,” says Marilyn Musgrave of the Susan B. Anthony List.
Vander Plaats is also optimistic. “If Obama wants to make that his legacy, to dig in and shut down the government because he wants to fund the killing of babies and the selling of their body parts, let that be his legacy,” he says.
Some other pro-life leaders would prefer to avoid such congressional theater in order to keep the focus on the videos, several of which are yet to be released. “I’m not one that’s like, ‘Hey, let’s shut down the government,’” says Iowa Right to Life executive director Jennifer Bowen. “I would hope that those that voted against [the defunding measure], moving forward, I would hope that they would educate themselves on the videos and be part of a bigger conversation. . . . I don’t think that it has to come to [shutting down the government].”
Even if most Democrats persist in their defense of Planned Parenthood, Republican leaders might be able to attach the defunding measure to another “must-pass” bill. McConnell has the power to revive the amendment at any time, while House Republicans could pass a bill that puts a moratorium on federal funding for one year, pending investigation of the group.
Pro-life activists are open to alternative legislative moves. “Our goal isn’t shutting down the government, it’s to stop funding for this Planned Parenthood organization and the atrocities that they’re committing, and we’re going to focus on that moving forward,” says David Christensen, vice president of government affairs at the Family Research Council. “Which precise vehicle in the coming weeks is looked at for must-pass legislation, that I think will continue to be part of a discussion.”
McConnell could also offer an amendment defunding Planned Parenthood to a House-passed continuing resolution, but some conservatives might not accept defeat if Democrats kill the amendment once again, and that could put a shutdown in play. “They just seem to have this fetish for shutdown fireworks or something, and they’re just not going to be satisfied regardless of what the outcome is,” one senior GOP Senate aide says.
That critique might overstate Cruz’s ability to lead activists into a shutdown fight, rather than just following them. “We probably will have a showdown, and we’ll see who blinks first,” says Musgrave. “There are very strong feelings about defunding Planned Parenthood now, like I’ve never seen before.”
