Planned parenthood still a target, but benefiting from substantial lobbying effort

Mar 4 2011

After the Senate cleared the two-week stopgap budget bill, both sides of the fight over Planned Parenthood funding continue their lobbying campaigns.

The Hill: After CR Vote, Anti-Abortion Advocates Urge Planned Parenthood Defunding
Shortly after the Senate passed a two-week stopgap measure to keep the government running, anti-abortion advocates re-energized their fight against Planned Parenthood. The continuing resolution (CR) sent to President Obama Wednesday morning, designed to give Democratic and Republican lawmakers more time to hammer out a longer-term spending bill, avoided the most controversial aspects of a seven-month measure House Republicans approved two weeks ago. That spending bill included language from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) that would block federal funds from Planned Parenthood, as well as several other provisions that would prevent funding for the new health care reform law (Millman, 3/2).

Politico: Planned Parenthood Blitzes Senate
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, facing a looming vote in the Senate to cut its federal funding, argues that the ferocious political battle waged over the past few weeks has actually been a positive — a skirmish that finally achieved what abortion rights groups have attempted for a decade by shifting the debate onto the terrain of women's health (Smith and Kliff, 3/3).