Just as they do every year, Republicans will make yet another attempt to defund Planned Parenthood.
Speaker of the Lizard House Paul Ryan said today a measure to defund Planned Parenthood will be included in the bill to repeal Obamacare.
House Speaker Paul Ryan says upcoming legislation to repeal the health care law would cut off taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood.
The Wisconsin Republican spoke after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization over providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. Planned Parenthood provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services.
Yes, you read that right. Paul Ryan is using the findings of the Select Fetus Body Parts Committee to make another push to defund Planned Parenthood, except the committee didn't find anything.
The select committee just recently shut down and issued its final report which said absolutely nothing of consequence. The committee did not find any evidence of wrongdoing and certainly didn't find evidence that Planned Parenthood has been operating some kind of black market bazaar for fetal tissue.
The select committee recommended that Planned Parenthood be defunded for no substantive reason, and Paul Ryan is following their advice.
I am a legal layman, but I would guess Planned Parenthood will have a good case to make against the federal government if despot-elect Donald Trump signs a bill that defunds Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a public Medicaid provider and Republicans are moving to defund the organization simply because they don't like it. Republicans have no substantive or scientific reason to prohibit Planned Parenthood from being reimbursed by Medicaid for services rendered.
Planned Parenthood has won every case against states that attempted to defund the organization. Obviously, it's another ballgame altogether when Congress votes to defund an organization, but there are similar legal arguments to be made against it. Planned Parenthood won every case up until this point because state officials could not provide any evidence of wrongdoing at Planned Parenthood facilities. The yahoos of the GOP will not be able to provide that evidence either, because it doesn't exist. The select committee they created to find that evidence didn't find anything.
No one should be surprised if congressional Republicans move to outlaw fetal tissue research completely at some point in the near future. If they do, that's simply one more area of scientific study that America will fall behind on. It won't save a single sanctified zygote, or whateverthehell Republicans imagine it will do.