House debate on defunding Planned Parenthood stretches on for nearly three hours

By Felicia Sonmez

The debate on funding the federal government transformed into a heated -- and, at times, graphic -- argument over social issues Thursday night as lawmakers took to the House floor for nearly three hours to debate an amendment that would block federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

More than 30 House members, including members of leadership, spoke out on the measure, which was proposed by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) as an amendment to the resolution on funding the federal government through September.

The Pence amendment would bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding through programs such as Medicaid and Maternal and Child Health Block Grants. In addition, Planned Parenthood also receives funding through Title X, a $327 million program founded in 1970 that covers family planning and reproductive health. By law, Title X funds can be spent on family planning and contraception but not on abortion services.

The government funding resolution proposed by House Republicans late last week, to which Pence's amendment is attached, would eliminate the entire Title X program.

The debate on the floor Thursday night began with Planned Parenthood but quickly turned into a sparring match over abortion rights, women's rights, the national health care overhaul and even constitutional law.

In his floor remarks, Pence, who opposes abortion rights, seized on videos produced in an undercover sting by an anti-abortion-rights group showing Planned Parenthood employees counseling a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute.

"As the father of two teenage daughters, there are not words strong enough to portray my contempt of this pattern of apparent fraud and abuse by Planned Parenthood," said Pence, who is weighing a bid for Indiana governor in 2012.

He was followed by several Democratic women who took to the floor, including Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Louise Slaughter (N.Y.), who argued that federal law already prevents funds from going toward paying for abortions and cast the Pence amendment as a "war against women." Several other Democratic lawmakers criticized the debate over the Pence amendment as a distraction from the House's work on job-creation and bolstering the economy.

At one point, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) quoted from the Constitution in making his point that the Pence amendment would amount to a "bill of attainder" because it would seek to punish Planned Parenthood for conducting activities that supporters of the measure disapprove of, adding that the amendment would eventually get struck down by the courts.

Several speakers later, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) pushed back against Nadler's "bill of attainder" argument, then launched into a separate argument that the health care law actually does provide for federal funding of abortion, pointing to several obscurely worded clauses.

"That's abortion, folks," Gohmert said, hoisting in the air a copy of the health-care law. "There's funding for it here."

The often-emotional exchanges between lawmakers stretched until just before midnight and came as the House was meeting until the early morning hours for its third consecutive day to finish work on hundreds of amendments to the government funding bill.

At times, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were greeted by applause from their colleagues. Freshman Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) delivered impassioned remarks on the floor arguing against federal funding of abortion. She was applauded by about a dozen Republican lawmakers, including Pence, who personally thanked her after her remarks.

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), an outspoken abortion-rights opponent, also was welcomed by applause. His, though, came from several of his fellow Democrats who appeared surprised to hear him speak out against the Pence amendment, which Lynch criticized as "counterproductive" and argued would increase the number of abortions in the country.

"I don't have many friends in the Planned Parenthood community. They don't support me. I'm pro-life," Lynch said, adding that he supports the "good work" that the organization does in providing family planning advice.

At another point in the debate, a direct confrontation between two lawmakers led to a personal revelation from one of them.

That exchange came in the final stretch of the debate, when Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) read several lengthy passages from the book "unPLANNED" in which a former Planned Parenthood health center director who is now an anti-abortion-rights activist graphically describes her experience assisting with an ultrasound-guided abortion.

As soon as Smith finished speaking, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) rose and described herself as "one of those women [Smith] spoke about just now," revealing that she once had to have an abortion 17 weeks into her pregnancy.

"For you to stand on this floor and to suggest as you have that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcomed or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous," Speier said to Smith as the rest of the chamber stood silent.

Among the congressional leaders in the room were House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Cantor addressed the chamber toward the end of the debate, which wrapped up at 11:47 p.m. Thursday, two hours and 50 minutes after it began.

A vote on the amendment is expected on Friday.