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. 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. 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.
– A measure to defund Planned Parenthood was shot down in the Senate after passing the House by a vote of 241-185. The Senate vote was 42-58, with five Republicans rejecting the stand-alone measure: Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, MSNBC reports. Ten Democrats backed the measure in the House. Federal laws ban spending government money for abortions unless a woman's life is in danger, but Republicans argue that providing Planned Parenthood with funding for other services frees up cash it can use to subsidize abortion services, Bloomberg notes. Planned Parenthood’s president hailed the Senate for rejecting "this extreme proposal."