Conservative lawmakers who demanded Planned Parenthood executives answer for “
alleged atrocities” are holding the first in a series of congressional hearings on Wednesday on the video controversy that has rallied anti-abortion Republicans, and could become the flashpoint in a battle over government shutdown .
Noticeably absent from the hearing, however, is
Planned Parenthood itself.
The House judiciary committee will hear from “experts on the issues surrounding the alleged acts of Planned Parenthood”, including two women described as “abortion survivors”, but declined to invite representatives from the women’s healthcare organization.
The anti-abortion activist group behind the videos, the Center for Medical Progress, claims they show Planned Parenthood illegally profited from its fetal tissue donations. Planned Parenthood has said the
videos were heavily altered, and represent the latest attack in a decades-long campaign by culture conservatives to undermine the organization.
“For 15 years anti-abortion activists have been trying to manufacture public outrage, and for 15 years their attacks have fallen apart upon closer inspection,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice-president for Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The Center for Medical Progress may have a different name, but this is the same cast of characters and follows the same script. There’s a reason those who oppose women’s access to health care have had to resort to lying and inventing false claims to make their case: the vast majority of the American public wants to ensure women have access to safe, legal abortion.”
Requests for comment from the committee and its ranking members about why Planned Parenthood was not invited were not returned.
The series of nine sting videos – surreptitiously recorded, heavily edited and released weekly this summer – has triggered several state-level investigations into the health organization as well as into the group behind them. It has also revived Republican efforts to defund the organization, especially among presidential contenders eager to galvanize religious conservatives.
“In light of recent and horrific revelations that Planned Parenthood is trafficking in fetal tissue and body parts from abortions,” wrote GOP presidential candidate and Texas senator Ted Cruz in a draft letter addressed to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, “we urge you not to schedule or facilitate the consideration of any legislation that authorizes or appropriates federal dollars for Planned Parenthood.”
The senator’s letter, circulated to Senate Republicans for signatures last week, stoked fears that some
Republicans would force a government shutdown in an effort to defund the organization. McConnell said the party doesn’t have the votes to defund Planned Parenthood, especially as the White House has promised to meet any such legislative efforts with a veto.
“We just don’t have the votes to get the outcome that we’d like,” McConnell said in an
interview with WYMT-TV last week. “ ... The president’s made it very clear he’s not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood so that’s another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view.”
Republican leadership is wary of tying the issue to the upcoming spending bill, which must be passed by the end of the month to avert a shutdown. If the spending bill fight forces a shutdown, Republicans worry their party may get blamed for the shutdown, and that Democrats would use the moment to shift the focus from Planned Parenthood’s conduct to GOP extremism.
