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 WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday took the first steps to avert a government shutdown by scheduling a vote on a temporary spending measure that would keep agencies functioning through Dec. 11. 
 
 The move marked an important breakthrough, even though Democrats were certain to block the spending bill because of a provision cutting off federal financing for Planned Parenthood. 
 
 Ultimately, the Planned Parenthood provision, prompted by the controversy over the use of aborted fetuses in medical research, is expected to be dropped from the Senate’s spending bill. That would allow the underlying legislation to move forward with bipartisan support and set up a larger showdown over spending between Republican leaders and President Obama later this fall. 
 
 Still, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, urged Democrats to adopt the measure and accused them of pushing the country to the brink of a government shutdown when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, in a bid to strong-arm Republicans into accepting spending increases. 
 
 “They think it’s the only way to force America to accept their demands for more debt and more bureaucracy,” Mr. McConnell said. “But that’s not what Americans want. Americans want Democrats to now work with us responsibly to help our country get out of the situation that they, in fact, have engineered.” 
 
 As for Planned Parenthood, Mr. McConnell said the group would lose financing for one year, while $235 million in savings would be redirected to community health clinics. 
 
 The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, complained that Republicans were wasting time. “This vote on Planned Parenthood this Thursday is another rerun vote,” he said, adding, “How many times does the Republican leader need to return to this same show vote?” 
 
 The spending fight is the latest in an increasingly tense stalemate between the most conservative wing of the House and Republican leaders in both chambers who wish to keep the wheels of government churning through the next election, and who fear that a shutdown would hurt the chances of electing a Republican to the White House next year. 
 
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 Abortion has become a flash point in Congress in recent months. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans failed to advance a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, legislation the House has approved. 
 
 The fight has posed the greatest threat yet to John A. Boehner’s leadership as House speaker, with some Republicans saying they will try to oust him if Planned Parenthood does not lose its funding. 
 
 Other members of the House leadership have played down that possibility. 
 
 If stripped of the Planned Parenthood language, the Senate spending measure will probably win approval in the House with support from Democrats. But House Republican leaders are trying to convince reluctant members that the issue of Planned Parenthood funding is not urgent because the group has received all of its appropriated funding for the year and would not be receiving new funds until April. 
 
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 Some Republicans are hoping this will be enough to keep some of their colleagues from demanding a vote to take away money from Planned Parenthood. 
 
 “I don’t think the folks that are demanding this realize that all the money that would go to the groups has already been disbursed,” said Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma. “History teaches us that is a very counterproductive tactic to pursue.” 
 
 He added: “I have a 100 percent pro life record. I just don’t think we should be involved in this.” 
 
 Not every member buys that line of reasoning. “No thanks,” said Representative Mick Mulvaney, Republican of South Carolina. “I think the last thing we need is more smoke and mirrors.” 
 
 By getting the procedural gears turning on Tuesday, Mr. McConnell effectively cut off the possibility that Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican and presidential candidate, could single-handedly force at least a short-term shutdown. 
 
 Mr. Cruz, a primary force in the fight that led to a government shutdown in 2013, has been threatening to block any spending measure that included continued financing for Planned Parenthood, a position that he reiterated in a statement posted on Twitter on Tuesday. 
 
 Senate aides cautioned that while Mr. McConnell had initiated a process that would avert a shutdown before the close of the fiscal year, there was no guarantee that the House would be willing to simply follow the Senate’s path. 
 
 Mr. McConnell will be helped by the fact that Mr. Cruz’s Senate colleagues showed little interest in joining what many described as a futile effort, given opposition by Senate Democrats and President Obama. 
 
 “I don’t know what Senator Cruz is trying to accomplish,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who is also a presidential contender. “No one has convinced me that there is a way to defund Planned Parenthood with President Obama in power. And the one thing I will say is the last time we followed Senator Cruz’s lead in shutting down the government, it blew up in our face. One kick of a mule is usually enough.” 
 
 Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire, voiced similar frustration in a letter to Mr. Cruz last week in which she accused him of urging Republicans to engage in an unwinnable fight. 
 
 In a new twist, some House Republicans have turned their attention to their Senate Republican colleagues, who say that they could pass a spending bill to defund the abortion provider immediately if only Senate Republicans would change their rule and end the filibuster — removing the need for 60 votes to get to legislation. 
 
 Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the majority leader, said last week, that “If the Senate would simply change a rule,” then Congress could pass a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. 
 
 Most Senate Republican rejected that idea, particularly concerned that if Democrats were able to regain control of the chamber in 2016, they could then pass their agenda with a simple majority vote. 
 
 “House conservatives should be the most interested members in Congress of keeping the Senate filibuster,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, who is a strong defender of Senate rules. “Because without it and with Hillary Clinton, Democratic majorities could abolish all the right-to-work laws, raise taxes, have more gun control, fewer abortion restrictions and make every city a sanctuary city.” 
 
 The temporary spending measure would finance the government at a rate roughly equivalent to $1.02 trillion annually, complying with discretionary spending limits for 2016 that were previously agreed to by Republicans and Democrats. 
 
 It includes several adjustments for new or emergency programs, including $700 million for fighting wildfires and financing to ease a backlog of disability claims by veterans. 
 
 The measure also includes provisions to address increased demand for federal loans to private businesses through the Small Business Administration, and to prevent any delay in the launch of the joint polar satellite, a joint project of NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. ||||| The same Republicans who campaigned on doing away with legislative crises are careening toward government shutdown in less than two weeks with still no concrete plan to stop it. 
 
 It’s not that Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) leadership team is hiding their best hand. They have no trick up their sleeve, no ace in the hole — pick your cliché. Nearly everyone in House and Senate leadership recognizes a simple reality: At some point in the next two weeks, they will move on a bill free of provisions to strip Planned Parenthood of its government funding. It just depends how long it takes, how painful it is and whether Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) team stumbles into their second government shutdown in three years. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 Twelve days remain until the government runs out of money, but the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session for just a fraction of that time. The showdown over Planned Parenthood is the epitome of crisis-fueled legislating. Senior Republican lawmakers and aides increasingly believe that the funding fight will come down to three-day dash – Sept. 28 through Sept. 30, the final day of the fiscal year. 
 
 Asked Wednesday when his colleagues would get a glimpse at his bill to fund the government, Boehner said, “At some point.” 
 
 Several House Republicans lawmakers said they don't expect to vote before the week of Sept. 30. The House is only scheduled to be in session three days that week before the government runs out of money. 
 
 To top it off, the endgame will almost certainly result in a referendum on Boehner’s speakership. He's favored, but not guaranteed, to survive. But if he does it will be in a further weakened state. 
 
 The path the funding fight will take is not yet clear to either Boehner or McConnell, according to senior aides to both men. But it’s shaping up to be extraordinarily messy. 
 
 Top aides to McConnell and Boehner have been in close contact, discussing who will move first to pass a funding bill in their chamber. But the House has been paralyzed with indecision. A pack of House Republicans – mostly on Steve Scalise’s (R-La.) whip team – are worried about the expectations that will be set by passing a funding bill that strips funding from Planned Parenthood, only to relent in the end. Yet other forces in the conference want a vote on such a continuing resolution – and it’s possible, yet hardly certain, that GOP leadership will set one up for next week. 
 
 House Republicans want to be first to move a funding bill, but McConnell is setting up his own process – a sign of how slow the House has been to take action. 
 
 McConnell is nearly certain to bring up a so-called CR to fund the government next week that includes the language to defund Planned Parenthood, but Democrats will block its consideration. McConnell will then move a funding bill free of legislative riders. Republican leaders believe conservatives, like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will block it, but McConnell will be able to send it to the House by Sept. 29 at the latest. The Senate's plan could be put on hold if the House gets its act togther, aides caution. 
 
 The House is also trying to send other anti-abortion measures to Obama’s desk and are considering standalone bills, including one to defund Planned Parenthood that would ride alongside the government funding bill, but not impede its passage in the Senate. If the House hasn’t passed a "clean" bill by Sept. 29, it will have one day to avoid a government shutdown by passing the Senate’s bill, or a comparable measure. 
 
 “At some point in time you have to face reality,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), a member of the Appropriations Committee who is close to Boehner, speaking about the need to pass a clean bill. “People say, ‘Oh, you didn't even try to do x.’ There are some things you can't do. We tried to repeal Obamacare 50-some odd times in the House and guess what? It didn't work. We probably should have figured that out after two or three.” 
 
 House Republican leaders, meanwhile, are working behind the scenes to try to calm the troops. McCarthy and Scalise have privately told Republicans that they will try to use the majority-vote reconciliation process to deny funding to the women’s health group — they say that is the best way to get a bill to President Barack Obama's desk. GOP leaders have urged anti-abortion groups to speak out against a shutdown. 
 
 At a closed party-wide meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Thursday morning, GOP leaders presented lawmakers with an internal National Republican Congressional Committee poll showing overwhelming public opposition to shutting down the government to stop funding Planned Parenthood. The poll, conducted in 18 swing districts by the GOP firm The Tarrance Group, showed 64 percent of respondents would not favor a shutdown to try to stop the organization’s federal funding, compared to 30 percent who favor shutting the government. Among those who had seen videos allegedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue sales, 55 percent did not favor a shutdown, while 37 percent thought it was the right move. 
 
 “We want to be more strategic because I think we are on more solid ground right now than we have before in raising these issues,” Rep. John Shimkus said (R-Ill.), who has a long record opposing abortion rights. “But there are some that say, 'Not a penny.' So, leadership is trying to work it out.” 
 
 While much of this fight is about the government’s purported support of abortion, there’s a hefty anti-Boehner sentiment that’s spurring the opposition to the leadership’s plans. After Congress clears a clean government-funding bill, Boehner and McCarthy aides expect a hard-line conservative to put forward a motion that would, if successful, force the Ohio Republican from the speaker’s chair. 
 
 Republican leaders do not expect the so-called motion to vacate, first filed by North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, to succeed. They say they would handily defeat it if it came to the floor. "Team Boehner," as it is called internally, is not actively preparing for the vote by whipping support in the GOP conference. 
 
 But some of his allies privately say they have informally secured assurances from Democrats that they would support keeping Boehner as speaker, or vote present, which would lower the vote threshold. If all Democrats voted present, Boehner could win with as few as 124 Republicans. Recently, Boehner has even told some Republicans privately he would like to run for another term as speaker. 
 
 Those looking to oust Boehner have not put forward an alternative to serve as speaker, and senior GOP leadership aides say the hardliners have no alternative for when the Senate and president reject their plan to defund Planned Parenthood. For example, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said Florida Rep. Daniel Webster could be the next speaker because he got “12 times as many votes as Kevin McCarthy.” McCarthy did not campaign for the job earlier this year. Webster garnered 12 votes total. 
 
 “The Sept. 30 crisis is a crisis of our leadership's making,” Massie said. “They refuse to pass appropriations bills. Even the CR is not the way the government is supposed to be run. The American public knows that. What we need to do is get back to regular order.” 
 
 --John Bresnahan contributed to this report 
 
 
 
 Authors: ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
 
 / Updated By Frank Thorp V 
 
 With just over a week until government funding is set to expire, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would ban abortions from being conducted on fetuses after 20-weeks of gestation, a time at which supporters of the bill say a fetus can feel pain. 
 
 The motion, which needed 60 votes to advance, failed 54-42. 
 
 The vote was yet another attempt by GOP leadership to allow Republicans to vote on the topic of abortion ahead of what is expected to be a contentious government funding fight. Conservative Republicans, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in that chamber, are calling on their colleagues to block any government funding bill which does not strip federal funding of Planned Parenthood. 
 
 Related: Judge Reinstates Arkansas' Planned Parenthood Contract 
 
 Government funding expires at the end of September. 
 
 Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters that he sees that strategy as an “exercise in futility,” simply because Senate Democrats blocked a measure in August that would move federal funds away Planned Parenthood to women’s health clinics that do not provide abortions. 
 
 “We are not going to engage in exercises in futility,” McConnell told reporters last week, “We’ve already voted one time in the Senate to try to defund Planned Parenthood. We knew the President wouldn’t sign such a bill, so it will not succeed.” 
 
 But that hasn’t stopped Cruz, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, from circulating a letter to fellow Republicans asking for them to sign on to his strategy. 
 
 “The American people should no longer be forced to fund the abortion industry; therefore we will oppose any government funding legislation that would authorize or provide federal funds for Planned Parenthood,” the text of the letter, addressed to Sen. McConnell, reads. 
 
 But the letter has faced opposition from fellow Republicans, with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire, sending a letter back to Cruz in response, pressing him on how his strategy will result in anything other than a government shutdown. 
 
 “Since we only received 53 votes on the previous vote to redirect money away from Planned Parenthood, what is your strategy to succeed in actually defunding Planned Parenthood?" Ayotte asks Cruz in her letter, "How do we get 60 votes? And if for some reason there were 60 votes, how do we get 67 votes in the Senate to overcome a presidential veto?” 
 
 Related: GOP Focus Turning to Abortion in 2016 Race 
 
 While today’s bill did not address federal funding for Planned Parenthood, supporters say it would have put the United States in line with the majority of the world when it comes to abortion policies. 
 
 The House passed the bill in May by a vote of 242-184, with four Democrats joining the vast majority of Republicans to support the measure. 
 
 “We're one of seven nations in the entire world that allow abortion on demand at 20 weeks, the fifth month of the pregnancy,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who is also running for president said on the Senate floor, “I'd like to get us out of that club.” 
 
 But opponents of the bills on both sides of the aisle said the bill amounted to an attack on a woman’s right to choose, and that language included in the bill was too vague when discussing exceptions of the ban for victims of rape and incest. 
 
 “Under this bill, Mr. President, a doctor who performs such an abortion after 20 weeks to prevent grievous physical injury to the pregnant woman would be subject to criminal penalties of up to five years in prison,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said on the Senate floor, “Do we really want to make a criminal out of a physician who is trying to prevent a woman with preeclampsia from suffering damage to her kidneys or liver or having a stroke or seizures?” 
 
 Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called the vote a “waste of time” in light of the impending expiration of government funding, saying last week that the vote was in an effort to please the pope ahead of his historic visit to the Capitol to address Congress on Thursday. 
 
 “I guess they want to do that before the pope gets here,” Reid said, “But it's not going to change the pope, how he feels about the fact that republicans have ignored poor people in America. It's not going to change the Pope, how he feels about what's happening to our great world that we live in, that we know dealing with climate change.” ||||| The U.S. House of Representatives voted Friday, Sept.18 to defund Planned Parenthood for a one-year period. The vote was 241-187, with nearly all Republicans and two Democrats supporting the legislation. (Reuters) 
 
 This story has been updated. 
 
 The House passed two abortion-related bills Friday, including one that would strip federal health-care funding from Planned Parenthood for one year, but it remains unclear whether the votes would appease conservatives who have threatened a government shutdown over the organization. 
 
 The votes followed months of intense focus on Planned Parenthood prompted by undercover videos released by an activist group claiming they show violations of federal laws prohibiting the sales of fetal tissue for profit and restricting certain abortion procedures. Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing and claimed the videos have been unfairly manipulated as it has fought off attempts to end its federal support. 
 
 But neither bill is likely to become law as Senate Democrats have filibustered similar measures, and President Obama has indicated he would veto both bills. 
 
 That’s why the move is unlikely to stave off growing fears of a government shutdown on Oct. 1. Since House conservatives know the bill to defund Planned Parenthood is unlikely to be enacted, they’re unlikely to back off their desire to attach it to a must-pass government spending measure to keep the government open. But again, neither Senate Democrats nor Obama will accept such language, triggering the standoff. 
 
 Nonetheless, House Republicans hoped to appease conservatives with the abortion-related votes. 
 
 One bill passed Friday, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, would impose criminal penalties on medical personnel who fail to aid an infant born after an attempted abortion. The other, the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, imposes a one-year moratorium on federal funding for the group, which Republicans say will allow for a thorough investigation of its practices. Any funding, supporters said, would be redirected to clinics that do not offer abortions. 
 
 Congress must pass a budget before Sept. 30, or it faces partially shutting down the government for the second time in two years. Here's how we got to another potential shutdown. (Jayne W. Orenstein/The Washington Post) 
 
 [Wary of shutdown, GOP leaders try to refocus abortion debate] 
 
 “Most people think that is common sense,” said Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), sponsor of the defunding bill. “If there is reason to investigate, then there is reason to withhold taxpayer dollars during that period of time. The American taxpayer has been clear for a very long time that they do not want federal funds spent on abortion.” 
 
 Democrats pointed out that Planned Parenthood has long been prohibited from spending federal money on abortions, thanks to appropriations riders dating back to the 1970s. And in a floor debate Friday, they called the bill an attack on women’s health care and noted that other health-care providers would be unable to absorb all of Planned Parenthood’s hundreds of thousands of patients. 
 
 “This bill is dumb, it’s foolish, and it’s mean-spirited,” said Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla.). “The bill is based upon lies and exaggerations. If you want to have a truthful debate, then let’s talk about the 400,000 Pap smears, the 500,000 breast exams, the 4.5 million STD and HIV tests that Planned Parenthood does each year.” 
 
 [Sign up for The Daily 202, The Washington Post’s new political tipsheet] 
 
 Planned Parenthood’s affiliated clinics are together the country’s largest provider of abortions. But they also perform other women’s health and family planning services, which are funded through Medicaid and Title X federal grants totaling about $450 million a year. 
 
 The organization decried the vote Friday. “These bills are a callous attempt to insert politics into women’s health, and we’re grateful that the Senate and the president will stop them from becoming law,” said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. 
 
 Republicans and Democrats sparred over the undercover videos, which have been released by the Center for Medical Progress over the course of the summer. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) called them part of a “coordinated, broad-based smear campaign full of distortions and misinformation.” Key context was edited out of the videos, she said, including footage of exculpatory comments from Planned Parenthood executives. 
 
 During the second round of GOP debates, Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina said "shame on us" if lawmakers don't stop a bill from passing that funds Planned Parenthood. (CNN) 
 
 But Republicans said the videos spoke for themselves and lambasted Democrats for trying to undermine their content: “If they want to send one taxpayer dime to Planned Parenthood after watching them, shame on them,” said Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.). 
 
 The votes broke down mostly along party lines, with the Planned Parenthood bill passing 241 to 187 and the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act passing 248 to 177. 
 
 While public attention has been focused on the Planned Parenthood bill, anti-abortion activists believe the vote on the survivor protection bill, sponsored by Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), could be even more politically significant in the long run. 
 
 Democrats say current law is already sufficient to prevent the abuses that activists fear, and they pointed to objections from medical groups, such as the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which said the bill represents “gross legislative interference into the practice of medicine.” But activists believe those opponents have assumed an extreme position that could become a liability in future campaigns. 
 
 “The votes this afternoon are evidence of just how wedded to the idea of abortion on-demand, at any time, for any reason, that the Democratic Party has become,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, noting only five of 188 Democrats voted in favor. “Where is the compassion and concern for ‘the little guy,’ the abortion survivor, whose heart is beating and alive?” 
 
 The bills were brought to the House floor amid in order to create leverage with President Obama and congressional Democrats given the nearing deadline to fund the government. But neither have indicated a shutdown would force them to blink. 
 
 The Senate took an August test vote on a Planned Parenthood defunding bill, which fell well short of the 60 votes necessary to advance controversial legislation. Senators are expected to take a procedural vote Tuesday on a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in a related effort to demonstrate the political hurdles facing any bill restricting abortion rights. 
 
 On the House side, GOP leaders have sought to tamp down demands to link Planned Parenthood funding to the spending deadline. They have made both political and practical arguments: In a Thursday morning meeting at Republican National Committee headquarters, party leaders presented polling numbers showing Republicans would be blamed for a shutdown in key battleground districts. And they told members that due to the vagaries of federal appropriations and funding cycles, the kind of short-term funding bill that is likely to pass ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline would do little to affect Planned Parenthood. 
 
 “In the short term, you might feel better, but the money’s already out the door,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an Appropriations Committee member and leadership ally. “Let’s do the hearings. Let’s find out what the case is. Let’s try to craft something that’s a little more nuanced and precise than just, ‘if you don’t do what we want, we’ll shut down the government.’ “ ||||| The Democratic-run U.S. Senate defeated measures approved by the Republican-run House to bar spending government funds for the health-care overhaul law and Planned Parenthood. 
 
 The House voted 241-185 to stop federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides contraception and abortion services. The legislation was voted down in the Senate, 42-58, with five Republicans joining the 53 members of the chamber’s Democratic caucus to oppose it. 
 
 The House vote to deny funding for the health-care law that President Barack Obama pushed through Congress last year was 240-185. The Senate rejected the measure 53-47 on a straight party-line vote. 
 
 The votes in both chambers were held yesterday as part of the budget agreement reached last week to finance the government operations through the Sept. 30 end of the 2011 fiscal year. The separate budget measure, with spending cuts of $38.5 billion, cleared both chambers and will become law with Obama’s signature. 
 
 House Republicans, who in January passed a measure to repeal the health-care law that is unlikely to come up for a Senate vote, said they were satisfied that senators were required to go on the record on the defunding issue. 
 
 Vote Owed Public 
 
 “This is a vote that the American public has called for, and a vote that we owe the American public,” Representative Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana Republican, said during yesterday’s House debate on the health-care measure. 
 
 Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, said the defunding proposal would “take away the consumer protections” of the health-care law and “put insurance companies back in charge.” 
 
 The defunding provisions for the health-care law and Planned Parenthood were included in a budget bill the House passed in February that called for $61 billion in spending cuts this fiscal year. Republicans sought the Planned Parenthood provision because the organization provides abortion services along with other medical care, such as cancer screenings and tests for sexually transmitted diseases. 
 
 Obama’s Agreement 
 
 Obama insisted that neither provision be included in the compromise budget bill with the $38.5 billion in spending cuts that he negotiated with House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. The president did agree to the separate votes on the measures, as did Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. 
 
 In yesterday’s House votes, three Democrats broke with their party to support defunding the health-care law, while seven Republicans split with their caucus to oppose blocking funding for Planned Parenthood. 
 
 Republicans voting against the Planned Parenthood legislation in the Senate were Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. 
 
 Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood’s president, hailed the Senate action. In a statement, she said “this extreme proposal” that “would have denied some family planning” and produced more unplanned pregnancies “was rightly rejected by Democrats and Republicans.” 
 
 Republican Argument 
 
 Federal law bars the expenditure of government money for abortions except under specific circumstances, such as to save a woman’s life. Republicans argued that providing funding to Planned Parenthood frees up other money that the organization can use for its abortion services. 
 
 Planned Parenthood affiliates received $363 million in government grants or contracts in the 2009 fiscal year, according to the organization’s 2008-2009 annual report. 
 
 DeLauro said that 75 percent of Planned Parenthood’s 3 million patients who depend on the group’s clinics for basic health care live at or below the poverty level. 
 
 Planned Parenthood “carries out millions of life- preventing services” each year, DeLauro said. “If this resolution passes all of those services would be lost,” she said. 
 
 Representative Alan Nunnelee, a Mississippi Republican, said “it’s morally wrong to have taxpayer dollars” go to Planned Parenthood, which “has assisted in aborting the lives of over 5 million children” since 1977. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
– Twelve days remain in the fiscal year, and the threat of a second government shutdown in three years remains very much in play. The big problem remains a showdown over funding for Planned Parenthood, with conservative Republicans who are upset about recent undercover videos demanding that the group lose all federal funds. With the clock ticking, party leaders still have "no concrete plan" to avoid the shutdown, reports Politico. One possibility is to pass a temporary measure before the end of the month to allow more time for negotiations in the fall, but that's not a slam dunk—because House conservatives demand that even such a continuing resolution block Planned Parenthood funding, reports the Hill. They're also threatening to try to oust John Boehner—who opposes abortion and Planned Parenthood but doesn't want to hand Democrats a potential gift in the form of a shutdown—as speaker if he backs down. The AP sees a possible way out of what it calls this "political Rubik's Cube." House leaders are pushing through a number of abortion-related measures, including one that passed today to defund Planned Parenthood for a year. The measures stand virtually no chance of becoming law, but leaders hope they will be enough to mollify the conservative rank-and-file. It "remains unclear" whether that will be the case, however, notes the Washington Post. Lawmakers are in session only five more days until the deadline, and about the only safe bet is that the drama will go down to the final day, if not hour.