Republicans on Capitol Hill are betting the secretly filmed Planned Parenthood video — depicting an executive allegedly discussing the sale of fetal organs from terminated pregnancies — will give them cover to more aggressively push abortion issues without the political ramifications that have haunted the party in the past.

In recent years, Republicans have worked to soften their tone when it comes to contentious issues such as abortion, wanting to avoid a repeat of gaffes like Todd Akin’s “legitimate rape” comments that have turned off many female voters.


But now, the GOP is going hard on abortion politics — and Planned Parenthood specifically — following the release of the video depicting a top official for the group casually talking about doctors collecting fetal organs for biomedical companies during abortions.

“The gravity of the situation most definitely” changes things, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told POLITICO Thursday. “This is not just Republicans. It’s independents. It’s Democrats…. Americans don’t want their tax dollars spent doing what they’re doing.”

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his two top deputies — McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) — called for investigations almost immediately after the controversial video was made public, including whether it profits off fetal body parts. And within 24 hours, at least two powerful committees had announced probes on the issue.

McCarthy is already talking about defunding the organization through the appropriations process. And in the Senate, GOP leaders who have been eyeing a vote on legislation banning abortions after 20 weeks of gestation say this will give them momentum to clear the bill later this session.

“I think it really probably enhances the prospects of something like that passing right now,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Senate Republican, said Thursday. “I think that’s such an egregious, awful, horrible example out there, which I think just elevates the importance of addressing it. So I think it probably helps the bill.”

Planned Parenthood says the video is a misconstrued smear campaign using “heavily edited videos to make outrageous claims about programs that help women donate fetal tissue for medical research.”

“I want to be really clear: the allegation that Planned Parenthood profits in any way from tissue donation is not true,” the group’s president, Cecile Richards, in a video response. “We know the real agenda of organizations with videos like this … to ban abortion completely and to cut women off from care.”

But even if Republicans never turn up enough incriminating evidence to shutter the organization altogether, the video gives them a green light to bring the abortion issue front and center during hearings, floor speeches and on the campaign trail.

Opponents of abortion rights say the controversial video has swung the pendulum back in their favor.

“When the speaker opens up on it, and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee opens up, that means that the members who want to move on this, they’ve got license now,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said. “It isn’t like me pushing a rock uphill like Sisyphus. It’s the other way around. This is a downhill roll.”

Republicans damaged themselves politically on abortion in past years with a series of insensitive blunders. Former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), the prime example, suggested a woman couldn’t get pregnant during a sexual assault — thereby coining the now-notorious term “legitimate rape.”

The party has since treaded carefully on the issue. But Tuesday, undercover anti-abortion advocates released a secretly filmed video of Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood’s director of medical services, talking about selling fetal tissue and even harvesting body parts over a glass of wine and lunch.

Richards apologized for the tone of the staffer but said “our donation programs … follows all laws and ethical guidelines.”

Still, Republicans want to know if these doctors are performing partial birth abortions and profiting from the sales of fetal body parts afterwards. The House Energy and Commerce Committee and both chambers’ Judiciary panels are looking into the issue. And there’s an urgency among Republicans for one of the committees to host a hearing before August recess so the GOP can tell constituents they’re on the case.

“Every human life is sacred and should be protected from the atrocities allegedly undertaken by Planned Parenthood,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said Wednesday as he announced his probe. “The prospects of altering an abortion procedure in order to preserve intact the organs of aborted children, including their brains, reminds us yet again of the horrors of late-term abortions.”

Democratic lawmakers are already pushing back against Republicans’ aggressive moves. In a joint statement Thursday, Democratic Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Steve Cohen of Tennessee accused House Republicans of using a “sensationalist and heavily-edited” clip to attack Planned Parenthood.

“The video does not demonstrate that Planned Parenthood is ‘selling’ fetal tissue,” the Democrats said. “In fact, many portions of the full video — edited out of the nine-minute version that House Republicans have circulated — directly contradict the allegation that Planned Parenthood has violated federal law.”

In the Senate, some Republicans are opening their own lines of questioning.

In a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked her to brief the panel on actions that the Justice Department has taken to “ensure compliance with the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.”

That’s because Nucatola also discussed the statutory interpretation of the ban, which Grassley said “raises questions about whether abortion providers are acting in full compliance with federal law.”

Aside from Grassley’s inquiries, top Senate Republicans have not discussed a broader strategy in terms of investigations into Planned Parenthood and are likely to defer to the House.

“It’s horrific, the revelations,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said Thursday. “I think the best thing to do probably – rather than duplicating the effort – is to have the House do their hearings, get to the bottom of it. And we can figure out what the best legislative response may be.”

Separate from his inquiry, Grassley said Thursday that the 20-week abortion ban, written by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), will come through his committee either later this fall or early next year. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already promised it would get a floor vote, though he hasn’t sketched out a time frame to do so.

While abortion issues can be sensitive for moderate Republicans, the GOP is betting the video will turn off many voters, allowing them to press their case without political blowback.

And conservatives are betting the organization will take a financial hit. King, for example, was one of the first lawmakers to urge the defunding of low-income housing group ACORN, which went belly up following similar undercover videos suggesting criminal activity.

To this day, he keeps a tiny acorn in his pocket to remember his crusade. Now, he’s got his eyes on another organization.

“This represents ACORN’s scalp,” King said off the House floor Thursday, pulling the acorn out of his pocket. “Ask me after the appropriations cycle and see if I have a talisman in my pocket for Planned Parenthood’s.”

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