House speaker Paul Ryan gave first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the women’s health organization

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

House speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday that Republicans would legislate to defund Planned Parenthood as part of their attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

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The same day, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund announced a national effort against such attempts to defund it.

Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing Planned Parenthood, which provides women’s health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers.

Allegations regarding such practices were at the heart of a scandal involving videos filmed by an anti-abortion activists. Investigations in 13 states concluded without criminal charges, and Planned Parenthood officials have denied any wrongdoing.

Ryan’s comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group.

“The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill,” Ryan said.

Last year’s Obamacare repeal measure also contained an effort to defund Planned Parenthood, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account.

The defunding measure would take away roughly $400m in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care.

Being enrolled in Medicaid does not guarantee access to a doctor, so women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care.

Attempts by states to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid programs have been deemed incompatible with federal law.

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the 100-year-old organization. He said “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood”, but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as “very pro-choice”, but now opposes abortion rights.

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Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans: 59% in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans.

The defunding effort could also complicate an Obamacare repeal push in the Senate, where at least one GOP member – Susan Collins of Maine – cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015.

Last year’s elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of defections are possible if a repeal measure is to pass.

Asked on Wednesday about party efforts to tie the effort to defund Planned Parenthood to Obamacare repeal, Collins said: “That’s of concern to me as well, but I don’t want to prejudge what’s in the … bill.”

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Most Republican lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 that purported to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made.

The House GOP report issued on Wednesday accused Planned Parenthood of violating federal laws by altering abortion procedures to obtain fetal tissue, disclosing patients’ private information to firms that procure the tissue and “a general disinterest in clinical integrity”.

Planned Parenthood has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and did so again on Wednesday. The group has strong support from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

“Today’s Republican staff report once again demonstrates that this exercise was nothing more than a partisan attack on Planned Parenthood and women’s access to safe and legal abortion,” said Dana Singiser, Planned Parenthood’s vice-president for Public Policy, in a statement.