According to a report issued today by Naral Pro-Choice America, the U.S. Senate has successfully rejected efforts to defund Planned Parenthood.
This significant vote, geared towards stopping the potentially catastrophic closures of the nation's family planning and health centers, has essentially toppled the House’s proposed budget bill. It is important to note that this may, however, be a temporary victory.
In reaction to today’s events on Capitol Hill, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, issued the following statement:
“We commend fair-minded senators for rejecting the anti-choice House leadership’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and dismantle the nation’s family-planning centers,” said Keenan. “Unfortunately, the Senate action coincides with a War on Women in the House that continues to escalate. This extreme and far-reaching agenda is a wake-up call to Americans, who are realizing just how much time and energy anti-choice lawmakers are willing to expend attacking a woman’s right to choose instead of focusing on the jobs agenda that they promised Americans.”
Clearly the heros of the day are the close to 100,000 individuals who contacted their local senators in protest against this potential action against Planned Parenthood.
The U.S. Senate rejected the extreme House version of the continuing resolution (CR), legislation that defunds preventive-health services at Planned Parenthood and zeroes out Title X, the nation’s domestic family-planning program. However, women’s access to family-planning services remains in jeopardy as Congress now must compromise on a final CR that will fund the federal government through the remainder of the fiscal year.
Meanwhile, a House Ways and Means subcommittee scheduled a hearing on H.R.3, the extreme “Stupak on Steroids” legislation, for Wednesday, March 16. H.R.3 effectively blocks private insurance plans from covering abortion care in the new health-care system and imposes tax penalties on small-business owners and many other individuals who purchase private insurance plans that cover abortion care. The legislation now has 219 co-sponsors, enough votes to pass the House.
Source: Naral Pro Choice America
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
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