Story highlights Republicans need the backing of at least 50 of their 52 members to repeal Obamacare

There are at least two pro-choice senators who caucus with the GOP

Washington (CNN) A push by Republican congressional leaders to defund Planned Parenthood could threaten passage of their top-priority legislation to repeal Obamacare because of opposition to the anti-abortion provision by two key GOP senators.

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare.

Congressional Republicans have tried for years to zero out all federal funding for Planned Parenthood because the group provides abortion services. The fight over Obamacare helped trigger a 16-day government shutdown in 2013, and Democrats and President Barack Obama insisted any Planned Parenthood provision targeting the group be removed from a bill to fund federal agencies.

The decision to add the controversial Planned Parenthood language, which is opposed by most Democrats, could have a major impact on getting the Affordable Care Act repeal legislation through the Senate because supporters need the backing of at least 50 of their 52 members and two pro-choice senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, won't commit to approving the bill with the Planned Parenthood provision in it.

Further complicating matters for Senate GOP leaders is Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who announced this week he plans to vote against the Obamacare repeal legislation because the underlying budget measure it is attached to doesn't balance and adds to the deficit. If Murkowski, Collins and Paul all voted against the budget bill, it would be enough to torpedo the Obamacare repeal legislation.

Read More</s>WASHINGTON ― With so much attention on GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare this month, there’s a detail to their plan that may slip under the radar: Their bill will strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, too.

“Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said during a Thursday press conference, referring to the process Republicans are using to pass an Obamacare repeal bill with a simple majority of votes instead of a supermajority, which means Democrats can’t filibuster it in the Senate.

The bill still has to pass the House and Senate, and because the reconciliation process allows for unlimited amendments, Democrats can try to tie it up.

Republicans have routinely voted to defund Planned Parenthood over the years, but with President Barack Obama in the White House, their bills never had a chance of becoming law. That could change under President-elect Donald Trump.

Some Republicans argue the women’s health care provider shouldn’t get any federal money because it provides abortion services. But it’s a misleading claim: The federal Hyde Amendment already bans federal dollars for abortions, except in very restricted cases. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s services involve testing for and treating sexually transmitted diseases, providing birth control, screening for breast cancer and offering other women’s health care.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she’s not surprised the GOP is going after women’s reproductive rights as part of its Obamacare repeal.

“This is a priority for the Republicans,” Pelosi said in a Thursday news conference. “So I just would like to speak individually to women across America: This is about respect for you, for your judgment about your personal decisions in terms of your reproductive needs, the size and timing of your family, and the rest, not to be determined by the insurance company or by the Republican, ideological, right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives.

“This is a very important occasion where we’re pointing out very specifically what repeal of [the Affordable Care Act] would mean to woman,” Pelosi added.

Planned Parenthood gets most of its federal funding through Medicaid, which helps low-income women. That’s what Republicans would be cutting. The health care provider does get some Medicaid money in states, though, and could keep doing so regardless of what Congress does.</s>House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday Republicans would strip federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law, prompting an outcry from the century-old organization and Democrats.

Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women’s health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker’s comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group.

“The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our (repeal) bill,” Ryan said.

Last year’s Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account.

The defunding measure would take away roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. One factor is that being enrolled in Medicaid doesn’t guarantee access to a doctor, so women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care.

“Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “They cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we’re going to be here for 100 more.”

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the organization. He said “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood,” but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as “very pro-choice,” but now opposes abortion rights.

Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it’s a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans — 59 percent in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans.

The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member — Susan Collins of Maine — cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year’s elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass.

Asked Wednesday about party efforts to tie the effort to defund Planned Parenthood to Obamacare repeal, Collins said, “that’s of concern to me as well, but I don’t want to prejudge what’s in the … bill.”

Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made.

A supporter of the defunding effort said it may not have much of an effect on the number of abortions performed in the country, but that federal dollars to Planned Parenthood indirectly support abortion.

“A lot of the ongoing support in the structural finances for Planned Parenthood goes to build the buildings, the infrastructure that provides abortion,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla.</s>Republicans will move to defund Planned Parenthood as part of a process to dismantle Obamacare, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday.

Cutting off federal funds to the organization will be included in Congressional Republicans’ “reconciliation” budget bill, which was first introduced Tuesday and essentially prevents Democrats from using a Senate filibuster to protect President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul, according to The Hill.

“Planned Parenthood legislation will be in our reconciliation bill,” Ryan said.

Ryan said in a separate statement that the Affordable Care Act is a “failed law” that is “hurting people right now.”

Planned Parenthood called the Republicans’ move a “crusade” against Americans. Dana Singiser, the organization’s vice president for government relations and public policy, said in a statement that 55 million women who now have access to things like birth control would be affected by the change.

“Americans across the political spectrum don’t want these dangerous and backward policies. The public believes it is wrong to tear apart their health care without knowing what the replacement plan is to keep their families healthy and financially secure,” Singiser said.</s>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare.

Ryan made the announcement during a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Congressional Republicans have tried for years to zero out all federal funding for Planned Parenthood because the group provides abortion services. The issue helped trigger a 16-day government shutdown in 2013, and Democrats and President Barack Obama insisted any provision targeting the group be removed from a bill to fund federal agencies.

Another effort to defund the group will spur another high-profile clash and could be a tough vote for some moderate Republicans such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has opposed past efforts.

The vast majority of federal money that Planned Parenthood does receive funds preventive health care, birth control, pregnancy tests, breast cancer screening and other womens health care services. Democrats also point out that much of the money the group received is through the Medicaid program, which reimburses health care clinics that provide care to those covered by the federal program.

Under the "Hyde amendment" that is attached to annual funding bills, no federal money is allowed to go to programs that include abortion services, unless they are needed to preserve the life of the mother or are caused by rape.

Democrats immediately denounced the news that Republicans again were working to bar future federal funds for Planned Parenthood.

"This is a priority for the Republicans," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Thursday afternoon. "So I just would like to speak individually to women across America: this is about respect for you, for your judgment about your personal decisions in terms of your reproductive needs, the size and timing of your family or the rest, not to be determined by the insurance company or by the Republican ideological right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives. So this is a very important occasion where we're pointing out very specifically what repeal of the (Affordable Care Act) will mean to woman."

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said "it's likely no accident that this attack was launched the day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a long-time opponent of Planned Parenthood, held a closed-door meeting with Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership."</s>House Speaker Paul Ryan says upcoming legislation to repeal the health care law would cut off taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood.

The Wisconsin Republican spoke after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization over providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. Planned Parenthood provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services.

A similar bill last year also would have "defunded" the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health care for low-income women.

The defunding effort is a top priority of anti-abortion lawmakers but could complicate "Obamacare" repeal in the Senate, where at least one Republican senator has opposed the repeal. Susan Collins of Maine cited the effort to "defund" Planned Parenthood in her opposition to repeal.</s>Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker's comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group.

Last year's Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account.

The defunding measure would take away roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. One factor is that being enrolled in Medicaid doesn't guarantee access to a doctor, so women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care.

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the 100-year-old organization. He said "millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood," but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as "very pro-choice," but now opposes abortion rights.

Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it's a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is viewed by a sizable majority of Americans — 59 in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans.

The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member — Susan Collins of Maine — cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year's elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass.

Asked Wednesday about party efforts to tie the effort to defund Planned Parenthood to Obamacare repeal, Collins said, "that's of concern to me as well, but I don't want to prejudge what's in the ... bill."

Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made.

The House GOP report issued Wednesday accused the group of violating federal laws by altering abortion procedures to obtain fetal tissue, disclosing patients' private information to firms that procure the tissue and "a general disinterest in clinical integrity."

"Today's Republican staff report once again demonstrates that this exercise was nothing more than a partisan attack on Planned Parenthood and women's access to safe and legal abortion," Dana Singiser, Planned Parenthood's for Public Policy, said in a written statement.</s>WASHINGTON (CN) – President Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Mike Pence gathered their respective parties on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning to plot strategy in the looming congressional fight over the federal health care law.

After meeting for roughly an hour and half in an auditorium of the Capitol Visitor Center, Democrats from both the House and Senate emerged at around 11 a.m., projecting confidence that some of the portions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will survive Republican efforts to gut the law.

“We have a great deal of optimism that the good things that have happened in ACA are going to stay and that our Republican colleagues don’t quite know what to do, they’re like the dog who caught the bus,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. “They can repeal but that have nothing to put in its place.”

The message from Democrats leaving the meeting attempted to put public pressure on Republicans prepared to repeal so-called Obamacare and pre-emptively lay the blame squarely on the GOP for any potentially negative consequences the repeal could bring.

Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told reporters gathered outside the meeting that Democrats can use the power of their constituents to put pressure on Republicans to maintain as much of the law as possible.

“The president made, I think, a strong point that the individual provisions of the Affordable Care Act are popular, and that we know we’re right on policy,” Cardin said. “We have to be able to get this message out to the American people and that to repeal without a replacement is a position that Americans are not going to be satisfied with.”

Cardin said Democrats will continue to fight back against Republican efforts to repeal the law, but did not rule out negotiating with them on a replacement package.

“We will never walk away from the table,” Cardin said. “But we’re going to make it clear that if they try to repeal or continue to schedule a repeal without knowing the replacement that is a dangerous policy, one that we will have nothing to do with.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., made similar points, blasting Republicans for railing against Obamacare for seven years without putting forward an alternative.

“The president made it clear that the politics are on our side and that, when you look at most surveys, it shows that the American people do not want it repealed,” Cummings said. “They don’t mind it being improved, but they don’t want it repealed.”

Republicans seemed jovial after their meeting, an event for which members of the party have been preparing since 2010.

“We are starting today on our work to deliver relief to Americans struggling under Obamacare,” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said at a press conference. “We must remember this: This law has failed. Americans are struggling. The law is failing while we speak. We need to reverse the damage that has been done.”

Pence noted that the repeal of Obamacare will begin on Day 1 for President-elect Donald Trump, saying a combination of executive action and legislation will “ensure that an orderly and smooth transition to a market based health reform system is achieved.”

Trump touched on the issue himself in a Twitter deluge this morning. Channeling his inner Pollyanna, the president–elect appeared to suggest that no one need do anything to dismantle Obamacare.

“Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed ObamaCare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in Arizona,” Trump said. “Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web. [M]assive increases of ObamaCare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight – be careful!”

Senate Republicans put their legislative plans to repeal Obamacare into motion on Tuesday, almost immediately after the new Congress convened for the first time. A resolution introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., will use the budget-reconciliation process to strip Obamacare of most of its force soon after Trump’s inauguration this month.

Enzi’s resolution does not have the specific details of how the repeal would work, but asks for a bill before Senate Budget Committee by Jan. 27.

The Senate agreed to move to the budget reconciliation process in a 51-48 vote Wednesday afternoon.

Budget reconciliation is an annual process lawmakers sometimes use to tackle controversial measures, such as Obamacare repeal, as it does not require the 60 votes it takes to move most other pieces of legislation through the Senate.

Republicans outnumber Democrats 52-48 in the Senate, meaning Democrats could block any attempt to repeal the law through a traditional piece of legislation. This makes the filibuster-proof reconciliation package the only truly viable method for Republicans to gut the law.</s>WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday Republicans would strip federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law, prompting an outcry from the century-old organization and Democrats promising to fight the move.

Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women’s health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker’s comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group.

“The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our (repeal) bill,” Ryan told reporters.

Last year’s Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account.

The defunding measure would take away roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. Republicans would redirect the funding to community health centers, but supporters of the organization say women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care.

“Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “They cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we’re going to be here for 100 more.”

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the organization. He said “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood,” but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as “very pro-choice,” but now opposes abortion rights.

“This election was not about taking away women’s opportunity to get basic, lifesaving health care,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it’s a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans — 59 percent in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans.

The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member — Susan Collins of Maine — cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year’s elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass.

Conservatives won a close 2015 vote in the Senate on the issue but last year’s election results appear to have narrowed the margin. And Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., predicted Democrats could win this time around — especially since Republicans who may be uneasy about the idea can no longer count on a veto by President Barack Obama to dictate the outcome.

“This is now real,” Murray said. “So members of Congress in the Senate and in the House will not be able to hide.”

Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made.</s>House Speaker Paul Ryan made jaws drop when he announced on Jan. 5 that as part of their plan to dismantle Obamacare, Republicans will defund Planned Parenthood. Furious voters and celebs have taken to Twitter to give Paul a piece of their mind, vowing to stand with the vital organization. Check it out right here.

Paul Ryan, 46, has vowed to strip Planned Parenthood’s funding, and people everywhere are rightfully infuriated. If the Republicans succeed, health care will be cut off for millions of people who use their services in order to get cancer screenings and birth control, among other preventative services.

Obviously, women, men, celebrities and other politicians took to Twitter to express their outrage over Ryan’s announcement, using the hashtag #IStandWithPP. Take a look:

“Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care. Two and a half million women, men and young people come through our doors every year for lifesaving care like cancer screenings, birth control, and STI and STD tests, and they cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we’re going to be here for 100 more. Women and men in this country won’t let politicians like Paul Ryan and Mike Pence take us back decades. It’s likely no accident that this attack was launched the day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a long-time opponent of Planned Parenthood, held a closed-door meeting with Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership. Now that their plan is clear, Planned Parenthood, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the one in five women who have come to Planned Parenthood, the entire public health establishment and the millions of supporters across the country are ready to defend care with everything we’ve got.”

HollywoodLifers, where do you stand on this?
Paul Ryan announces that the Republican party will, as part of its efforts to repeal Obamacare, seek to stop using federal money to fund Planned Parenthood.