Planned Parenthood: On a Cash Course with Congress
September 06, 2017 - FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL
If seven months wasn't enough time for Congress to repeal Obamacare, then getting it done in 24 days would take a minor miracle.
And while conservatives are more than willing to hope for one, they're also setting their sights on the next window to take down the law that's costing Americans a lot more than dollars. While Senate leaders scramble for a quick fix to one of the country's biggest problems, pro-life groups are reminding members that the reconciliation bill is also the nation's best chance of defunding Planned Parenthood.
"This Republican pro-life Congress made a promise to American voters to stop taxpayer funding for the largest abortion chain in the nation, Planned Parenthood. It is now well past time to deliver on that promise... While many important pro-life legislative initiatives face the hurdle of requiring a super majority to avoid a filibuster in the Senate, it only takes a simple majority to stop the taxpayer subsidies to Planned Parenthood through a budget reconciliation bill... We urge you to revisit the FY2017 reconciliation bill immediately and find consensus on a bill that takes Planned Parenthood off the federal Medicaid dole and offers women comprehensive alternatives."
Doing anything less, the groups warn, "brings into question whether this Congress can truly be called the pro-life Congress." Rhetoric, they insist, "must be translated into law."
For now, the biggest obstacle -- apart from the GOP's own differences -- is the clock. Over the August recess, the Senate parliamentarian confirmed that time is ticking on Republican leaders to get a deal done on the legislation before September 30. Once the calendar flips, Congress will be back at square one: forced to move the FY2018 budget bill just to open the door to a new reconciliation process.
In other words, if leadership can't get its act together to pass something by the end of the month, it can always be added to the coming year's.
Unfortunately, not every unborn child has the time to spare. The longer the Senate waits to gut Obamacare and make deep cuts to Planned Parenthood's funding, the more innocent lives are at risk.
Cecile Richards's group took the lives of 328,348 unborn children last year.
That's 900 lives snuffed out before their first breath every single day by onetaxpayer-funded abortion chain. We join with SBA List, March for Life, and others in declaring that the time for results is now.
Lives, very literally, depend on it.
Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
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