WASHINGTON -- The Senate blocked a Republican drive Monday to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The derailed legislation was the Republican response to videos, recorded secretly by anti-abortion activists, showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide medical researchers with tissue from aborted fetuses. Those videos have led conservatives to accuse the group of illegally selling organs for profit, claims that Planned Parenthood has denied.
The Senate voted 53-46 to halt Democratic delays aimed at derailing the bill, falling seven short of the 60 votes Republicans needed. Arkansas' Republican Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton voted to advance the measure.
Planned Parenthood provides contraception, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and abortions in clinics nationwide.
Democrats were largely quiet when the videos were first distributed, but their defense of Planned Parenthood has grown more robust.
"It's our obligation to protect our wives, our sisters, our daughters, our granddaughters" from the GOP's "absurd policies," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "The Republican Party has lost its moral compass."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Democrats should not protect Planned Parenthood's federal funds "just to protect some political group," referring to its campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said, "The American taxpayer should not be asked to fund an organization like Planned Parenthood that has shown a sheer disdain for human dignity and complete disregard for women and their babies."
Ernst sponsored the measure as party leaders sought ways to blunt Democratic charges of GOP insensitivity to women.
The only senators to cross party lines were Democrats Joe Donnelly of Indiana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Illinois Republican Mark Kirk. McConnell joined Democrats in voting to block the bill, a procedural move that allows him to force another vote later. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a presidential candidate, was in New Hampshire and didn't vote.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said Monday's vote showed the bill was "a political nonstarter." Tony Perkins, president of the anti-abortion Family Research Center, said Congress "must take the next step" and remove Planned Parenthood's funding when lawmakers return next month from summer recess.
Stung by past government shutdowns that voters have blamed on Republicans, GOP leaders have shown no interest in a dispute over federal funding this fall. But it could be challenging for Republican leaders to control their most conservative lawmakers, who are urged on by the party's anti-abortion activists.
Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., has said he expects to get several dozen signatures on a letter opposing any spending bill containing money for Planned Parenthood, and several GOP senators have voiced similar sentiments.
The Republican measure called for funneling Planned Parenthood's federal dollars to other providers of health care to women, including hospitals, state and local agencies and federally financed community health centers.
Republicans said that transfer would enable women to continue receiving the health care they need because Planned Parenthood's nearly 700 clinics are far outnumbered by other providers.
Planned Parenthood and Democrats say many of the organization's centers are in areas with few alternatives for reproductive health care or for other services for low-income women who comprise a majority of its clients.
Planned Parenthood receives more than $500 million yearly in government funds -- including state payments -- more than one-third of its annual $1.3 billion in revenue. Its annual report says it provides services for 2.7 million people annually, mostly women, with abortions accounting for 3 percent of its procedures.
By law, federal funds are already barred from being used for abortions except for cases of incest, rape or when a woman's life is in danger.
The anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress released four videos last month in which people posing as representatives of a company that purchases fetal tissue converse with Planned Parenthood officials. The videos have been contentious because of the casual descriptions by the Planned Parenthood officials of the abortion procedures they use to obtain tissue.
The center and some of its GOP supporters have said the videos show that Planned Parenthood sells the tissue for profit, which is illegal under federal law.
Planned Parenthood says the videos are selectively edited and that the organization only recovers costs of the procedures -- which is legal -- and only gives the tissue to researchers with a mother's consent and in fewer than five states.
On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco extended a restraining order that blocks Center for Medical Progress from releasing any recordings that it secretly gathered at annual meetings of an abortion providers' association.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick sided with claims by the National Abortion Federation and its members that they would suffer harassment, intimidation and even violence if the Center for Medical Progress were permitted to circulate the material.
The federation, a professional association that represents clinics, health centers, doctor's offices and hospitals where abortions are performed, alleges that officers with the Center for Medical Progress infiltrated the federation's yearly conferences in Baltimore and San Francisco by posing as fetal tissue buyers.
Orrick initially issued an emergency restraining order on Friday. After a brief hearing Monday, the judge agreed to keep the temporary order in place until an Aug. 27 hearing on the federation's request for an injunction permanently disallowing release of the information.
Also on Monday, Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration announced that Louisiana is removing Planned Parenthood from its Medicaid program.
The Jindal administration sent the organization notification that it was ending four provider agreements that reimbursed Planned Parenthood for providing health care services to low-income patients through the government-funded Medicaid insurance program.
Jindal cited the videos in his announcement.
"Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life. It has become clear that this is not an organization that is worthy of receiving public assistance from the state," Jindal said in a statement.
Planned Parenthood doesn't provide abortions in Louisiana, but it offers cancer screenings, birth control, gynecology exams, sexually transmitted disease treatment and other health services in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram, Melinda Deslatte and Lisa Leff of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/04/2015