Sen­ate Demo­crats blocked a Re­pub­lic­an bill Thursday that would keep the gov­ern­ment from shut­ting down at month’s end but strip fund­ing from Planned Par­ent­hood.

The bill was voted down 47-52, with eight Re­pub­lic­ans cross­ing over to op­pose the meas­ure and one Demo­crat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Vir­gin­ia, vot­ing with Re­pub­lic­ans for a second time to end fund­ing for Planned Par­ent­hood. Many of the Sen­ate Re­pub­lic­ans who voted against Thursday’s spend­ing bill say they don’t be­lieve the fight over Planned Par­ent­hood fund­ing should threaten the op­er­a­tion of the gov­ern­ment.

Maine Re­pub­lic­an Sen. Susan Collins who op­posed the meas­ure, warned against the strategy on Tues­day when the vote was ini­tially an­nounced. “I don’t think the two is­sues should be linked,” Collins said Tues­day. “I think that we need a clean CR in or­der to make sure the gov­ern­ment does not shut down and that is my top pri­or­ity.”

The bill, which would have kept the gov­ern­ment open through Dec. 11, was Ma­jor­ity Lead­er Mitch Mc­Con­nell’s open­ing move in what has be­come a high-stakes game of budget chick­en. The Re­pub­lic­an lead­er has been very clear that his end goal is to avoid a shut­down, but if—and how—he will achieve this re­mains up in the air, es­pe­cially as some Re­pub­lic­ans say they won’t vote for any meas­ure that ex­tends fed­er­al fund­ing for Planned Par­ent­hood.

Mc­Con­nell has re­peatedly warned his caucus that at­tach­ing the Planned Par­ent­hood meas­ure to a gov­ern­ment fund­ing bill would fail. Thursday’s vote demon­strated that point to con­ser­vat­ives in the Sen­ate, and per­haps more im­port­antly, the House. Mc­Con­nell is now ex­pec­ted to bring up a clean con­tinu­ing res­ol­u­tion to keep the gov­ern­ment open through Dec. 11. That meas­ure should pass the Sen­ate, but it’s un­clear when the bill will clear the up­per cham­ber and wheth­er the House can stom­ach it.