Republicans offer legislation defunding Planned Parenthood

Congressional Republicans began working Wednesday to defund Planned Parenthood as House Democrats called for Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the California attorney general to investigate the group that produced the undercover sting videos at the center of the controversy.

Sen. Rand Paul, a GOP presidential contender, introduced an amendment to the tax code that would strip Planned Parenthood of the federal dollars it receives annually for a range of women’s health services.


And in the House, Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) introduced the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015, which would place an immediate one-year moratorium on support for Planned Parenthood while Congress investigates the organization’s practices.

These are the legislative efforts to defund the organization since two videos, showing Planned Parenthood officials allegedly discussing the sale of fetal organs and tissue, were released starting last week by the California-based Center for Medical Progress.

Planned Parenthood has denied selling fetal parts and has said its tissue donation programs follow all legal and ethical guidelines. It has fiercely defended itself, slamming both videos as “heavily edited” to falsely represent the organization’s practices and called those attacking it “extremists” bent on spreading false allegations to restrict access to abortion.

A group of House Democrats sent a letter requesting that Lynch and California Attorney General Kamala Harris launch an investigation into whether the Center for Medical Progress violated any state or federal laws when it recorded the Planned Parenthood executives while posing as representatives from a fake company.

Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Zoe Lofgren of California, and Jerry Nadler and Yvette Clarke of New York also raised questions over whether the group coordinated its efforts with any Republican lawmakers in Congress.

Wednesday afternoon, Lynch said the Justice Department would review all of the information and determine what the appropriate steps moving forward would be.

Republican leadership is weighing a handful of maneuvers to strip the federal dollars that Planned Parenthood receives. Some are considering attaching an amendment to the highway transportation bill, which could come up for a vote in the Senate as early as this week. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy also signaled that a defunding measure could become part of the debate over a government spending bill this fall.

Two congressional committees have already launched probes of Planned Parenthood, and other lawmakers are pressing for additional scrutiny. The organization received $528.4 million in government funding in the fiscal year that ended in June 2014. That included some state dollars through Medicaid programs.

In addition to Paul, GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have called for probes — with Jindal and Walker also in favor of defunding. But Bush on Wednesday stopped short of that, instead saying that “there should be a thorough review of spending in Washington, D.C., particularly organizations that have a very deep political agenda.”

Jennifer Haberkorn, Eliza Collins and Eli Stokols contributed to this report.