WASHINGTON — Republican legislation to cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood failed to gather enough support in the U.S. Senate on Monday, halting at least for now moves to punish the women’s health group for its role in gathering fetal tissue from abortions for medical research.
Senate Democrats succeeded in stopping the bill on a procedural vote. Sixty votes were needed to advance it in the 100-person chamber. It received 53 votes, with 46 senators opposing it.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted to continue debate on the bill. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, voted against it.
Planned Parenthood, which provides health care services to millions of women at hundreds of centers nationwide, has come under attack with the online posting of hidden-camera videos produced by an anti-abortion group, Center for Medical Progress.
The group has said the videos show Planned Parenthood officials negotiating prices for fetal tissue from abortions it performs. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing and has said it does not profit from fetal tissue donation.
Under U.S. law, donated human fetal tissue may be used for research, but profiting from its sale is prohibited.
Republicans are likely to try again in September to stop Planned Parenthood from getting federal funds, which amount to more than $500 million a year.
After a congressional recess in August, conservative Republicans could try to attach their defunding measure to a bill to fund the government, raising the prospect of a possible government shutdown over the issue.
The Republicans’ efforts have intensified America’s long-running abortion debate just as the 2016 presidential campaign is getting under way. This has angered many Democrats.
The legislation was “just one more piece of a deliberate, methodical, orchestrated right-wing attack on women’s rights. And I’m sick and tired of it,” Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “Women everywhere are sick and tired of it. The American people are sick and tired of it.”
“I want to say to my Republican colleagues, the year is 2015, not 1955 and not 1895,” Warren added.
Two Democrats, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, broke ranks and supported the defunding effort.
“I do not believe that taxpayer money should be used to fund this organization; instead those funds should be sent to other health care providers,” Manchin in a statement.
The legislation’s main sponsor was freshman Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.
“The question before us today is clear: Who do we want to be as a nation? It is hard for anyone to defend these morally reprehensible videos, as Planned Parenthood callously harvested the organs of unborn babies, to be sold at a price,” Ernst said.
Just one Senate Republican, Mark Kirk of Illinois, who faces a tough re-election race next year, voted against advancing the bill.
Planned Parenthood gets up to $500 million per year in Medicaid contributions, and up to $60 million in federal funds for family planning services. U.S. law tightly restricts applying federal funds to abortions.
Millions of women, many young and single, rely on Planned Parenthood for health care beyond abortions and family planning, including breast and cervical cancer screenings.
Young, single women are a key demographic for Hillary Clinton, the front-runner to represent the Democratic Party in the November 2016 presidential election.
Clinton has called the online videos “disturbing,” while also saying it was “regrettable” that Republicans, allied with anti-abortionists, were trying to cut off funding.
In the videos, anti-abortion activists posed as researchers trying to obtain fetal tissue and, using hidden cameras, interviewed Planned Parenthood officials about potential costs.
In Louisiana, Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of many seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said on Monday his state was terminating its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood.
Three Republican senators seeking the nomination, Texas’ Ted Cruz, Kentucky’s Rand Paul and Florida’s Marco Rubio, voted on Monday in favor of advancing the bill to defund Planned Parenthood, but a fourth, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, was absent.
Collins spoke from the Senate floor to urge her colleagues to support legislation introduced Monday with Mark Kirk, R-Ill., “that would promote and protect women’s health and also investigate Planned Parenthood’s practices,” according to a statement from Collins.
Collins said the bill would require the Department of Justice to investigate whether Planned Parenthood or its affiliates have engaged in any illegal activity pertaining to fetal tissue and submit a report to Congress on their findings within 90 days.
“I was sickened when I viewed the recently released videos featuring Planned Parenthood physicians in both their edited and unedited versions,” Collins stated. “We do, however, need to keep in mind the fact that Planned Parenthood provides important family planning, cancer screening, and basic preventive health care services to millions of women across the country. For many women, Planned Parenthood clinics provide the only health care services they receive. It would be premature to totally defund Planned Parenthood immediately until we know more facts.”
Collins said no Planned Parenthood affiliates in Maine engage in fetal tissue sales.
Before the vote, King delivered remarks on the Senate floor in support of Planned Parenthood and the services the organization provides.
“Ninety seven percent of the activities of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its associated facilities have nothing to do with abortion. They have to do with women’s health,” King said in his remarks. “They have to do with cancer screening. They have to do with contraception. They have to do with early detection. The three percent that do involve abortion have no involvement whatsoever with federal funds. This is not a case where federal funds are going to support abortion or any of the related activities. The net effect of this bill is simply to deny basic health care, including contraception, to millions of women, particularly low-income women. I hope my colleagues will move on, debate the real issues, and oppose this ill-founded and, I believe, unsupported piece of legislation.”
The Bangor Daily News contributed to this report.