Contraception

'Where Are The Women?' Democrats Go On Offense Over Contraception

Pema Levy | February 17, 2012, 5:58AM

Democrats have a new rallying cry when it comes to the Obama administration's hotly contested contraception rule. Thursday, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) gazed at an all male panel at yesterday's House Oversight hearing and asked, "Where are the women?" The question is being repeated by Democrats and women's rights groups as they attempt to shape the narrative of the contraception issue.

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Komen Foundation

Why Planned Parenthood Had To Fight Back So Hard

Pema Levy | February 9, 2012, 6:04AM

The Komen Foundation seemed to be caught off guard by the strong response to its decision to defund Planned Parenthood. The former executive Karen Handel told Fox News upon her resignation that Planned Parenthood had made the matter "political." Meanwhile, an anonymous Komen source told the Huffington Post they'd been caught off-guard by Planned Parenthood's "incredibly sophisticated" operation.

It should not have come as a shock. Planned Parenthood is no stranger to such controversies. TPM spoke with two former Planned Parenthood presidents about why the women's health group had chosen to fight back, and to fight hard.

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Komen Foundation

Ex-Komen Official: We Aren't Political, But Planned Parenthood Is

Pema Levy | February 7, 2012, 5:53PM

Karen Handel

Karen Handel, the controversial former Komen Foundation executive who resigned on Tuesday morning hit Fox News in the afternoon to defend Komen's cuts to Planned Parenthood.

If the cancer charity is hoping to draw a line under the firestorm, then it doesn't seem the manner of Handel's departure will necessarily help. Although she attracted intense media interest in the days following the decision, with many speculating that she played a large role in the move, her interview, much like her resignation letter, left many questions dangling for the charity.

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Komen Foundation

Komen Reverses Position On Planned Parenthood, Pledges To Continue Funding

Jillian Rayfield | February 3, 2012, 11:26AM

The Susan G. Komen foundation announced that it will reverse its decision to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, apologizing for "recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives."

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Komen Foundation

Komen Foundation In Contortions Over Justifying Planned Parenthood Decision

Pema Levy | February 2, 2012, 5:35PM

Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure defended her organization's decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood on Thursday in a testy interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.

Though the Komen Foundation announced that it would award no new contracts to Planned Parenthood clinics, Brinker denied that Komen was actually "defunding" Planned Parenthood, a technical point based on the fact that a few grants have yet to expire.

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Komen Foundation

Where The Komen Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood Will Hit Hardest

Pema Levy | February 2, 2012, 10:59AM

The Komen Foundation's decision to cease providing grants to Planned Parenthood will soon take its toll on local communities unless the lost funding is made up. Nowhere is that more true than in Waco, Texas.

For almost 15 years, the Planned Parenthood of Waco, Texas has relied on grants from the local Susan G. Komen for the Cure affiliate to provide cancer-related care to uninsured women. But Waco is a unique case; the funding is more than just a boost -- it's actually the sole reason thousands of women receive cancer screenings and care.

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Planned Parenthood

What's Really Behind Komen's Cuts To Planned Parenthood?

Pema Levy | February 1, 2012, 6:15PM

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL)

Who is responsible for the Susan G. Komen Foundation's controversial decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood? When the Komen Foundation made the announcement Tuesday it pointed to Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL).

Stearns, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, launched an investigation last year into Planned Parenthood's finances, after House Republicans voted to defund the organization that provides a wide range of womens health services, including abortion services.

Stearns' investigation, which Planned Parenthood and its supporters consider an attempt to intimidate and harass the organization, was the basis for the Komen Foundation's decision. In their announcement they said the move was based on a new policy that prevents it granting funds to organizations under investigation.

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Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Defunded In New Hampshire

Megan Reback | July 12, 2011, 5:05PM

The New Hampshire Executive Council has voted to cancel the state's contract with Planned Parenthood, rejecting up to $1.8 million in state funding for the family planning-provider. The new provision also strips its authority to dispense low-cost birth control and antibiotics to uninsured patients.

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Planned Parenthood

NC Gov. Bev Perdue Vetoes Abortion Restricting Bill

Jessica Kim | June 28, 2011, 3:58PM

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC)

Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) on Monday vetoed a bill that would have required women seeking abortions to wait for 24 hours and receive ultrasound images of the fetus along with descriptions of what they are seeing before having the procedure.

"This bill is a dangerous intrusion into the confidential relationship that exists between women and their doctors. The bill contains provisions that are the most extreme in the nation in terms of interfering with that relationship," Perdue said in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer.

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Planned Parenthood

Indiana Planned Parenthood Loses Tax Credit Due To New Abortion Law

Megan Reback | June 20, 2011, 12:36PM

While a district judge considers whether to grant a preliminary injunction against a new law that seeks to strip Indiana Planned Parenthood of federal funding, the non-profit has taken another hit: the organization recently learned that its application for the 2011 Neighborhood Assistance Program was rejected by Indiana's Housing and Community Development Authority.

The Neighborhood Assistance Program lets nonprofits leverage contributions from individuals. Donors participating in the program receive a tax credit worth half their donation on their state income taxes.

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Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum: I'm Pretty Sure Planned Parenthood Practices Eugenics

Evan McMorris-Santoro | April 28, 2011, 4:20PM

Fmr. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

There are many reasons social conservatives give for cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. After a foreign policy speech today, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum expertly laid out one of the more extreme: Planned Parenthood, he said, is a bit too interested in racial eugenics for his taste.

"Well, look at -- and I know they dispute this -- certainly a lot of evidence that the location of their clinics happen to be in places, historically places, where there are high concentrations of minorities for example," Santorum explained to a gaggle of reporters after a foreign policy speech he made in Washington today. "

The placement of clinics and the targeted advertising may be a vestige of what Santorum called Planned Parenthood's "horrific origins," but he said much of the "poisonous" nature of the organization has remained even as it has claimed to, he said, "transform over time."

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Jon Kyl

Sen. Kyl Erases His False Statement On Planned Parenthood From Congressional Record

Jon Terbush | April 22, 2011, 2:52PM

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has erased from the Congressional record his false claim that abortions comprise 90% of Planned Parenthood's services. And yes, that is intended to be a factual statement.

During the recent budget debate, Kyl made that false claim about Planned Parenthood on the Senate floor, thus entering it into the Congressional record. But after taking a lot of flak for that act of huge hyperbole, Kyl had it stricken from the official text.

According to the Library of Congress website, members of Congress are entitled to, "edit the transcript of their floor remarks before publication in the daily record or the permanent record."

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Pres '12

LensCrafters To Bachmann: Don't Use Our Name Against Planned Parenthood

Eric Kleefeld | April 13, 2011, 3:06PM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)

Is Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the national Tea Party movement star who is considering a run for president, becoming the LensCrafters of gaffes?

On Monday, in a speech in Iowa, Bachmann declared: "The executive director of Planned Parenthood in Illinois said they want to become the LensCrafters of big abortion in Illinois." (As CNN points out, Planned Parenthood Illinois CEO Steve Trombley actually said in 2008, "I like to think of Planned Parenthood as the LensCrafters of family planning" -- which is a much wider category of health care services than just abortion.)

But besides the facts, Bachmann is also catching objections from some innocent bystanders in this political battle: in this case LensCrafters!

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Allen West

Rep. Allen West: GOP Did A 'Good Job At Messaging' Ahead of Government Showdown

Ryan J. Reilly | April 11, 2011, 12:05PM

Rep. Allen West (R-FL)

With Republican women dodging questions on abortion and a GOP freshman struggling to explain how defunding Planned Parenthood was about creating jobs, plenty of observers thought the Republicans lost the messaging war ahead of the government shutdown last week as the focus centered on social rather than fiscal issues. Not Rep. Allen West (R-FL).

West -- who isn't on board with the deal Republican and Democrats reached at the last hour to fund the federal government -- told reporters Friday that in his view, Republicans were on message.

"I think we did a good job at messaging, and the reason I think we did a good job at messaging is because the Democrats panicked and they started with the 'war on women,' 'killing women' and 'starving seniors' empty, emotional rhetoric," West said. "It's not working anymore."

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Government Shutdown

Three Plausible Outcomes To Government Shutdown Gridlock

Brian Beutler | April 8, 2011, 6:46PM

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Democrats are in a holding pattern as they wait for House Republicans to show their cards on a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. Here are the three paths forward, with the caveat that the details could change a bit.

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Government Shutdown

House GOP Women Dodge Questions on Abortion at Press Conference

Benjy Sarlin | April 8, 2011, 5:32PM

Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH)

Looking to counter a press conference earlier Friday by Democratic women in the Senate lambasting the GOP over their refusal to drop provisions blocking women's health funding, Republican women in the House held a gathering of their own on Friday afternoon. But the presser proved a frustrating affair for the members, who were asked over and over again without success to explain if they agreed with the policy riders or not.

In their opening remarks, the 15 congresswomen present each sought to frame the battle over a continuing resolution as one about spending, with several saying future prosperity spurred by lower debt would benefit their daughters and granddaughters -- seemingly a direct rejoinder to Democratic accusations that the GOP was targeting women and children. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said that the Democrats' spending was "economic child abuse."

But despite charging Democrats with falsely claiming negotiations were hinging on social issues, the members appeared uncomfortable even bringing up the policy riders in question by name. Not one member recited the words "Planned Parenthood" in opening remarks and only one member, Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, even mentioned the word "abortion." Several addressed Democratic charges that policy provisions regarding women's health and abortion were holding up a final deal only in the most indirect terms.

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Government Shutdown

Budget Mystery: 4 a.m. E-mail Shatters Reid's Hopes of a Deal

Susan Crabtree | April 8, 2011, 4:11PM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

It's that eery time during intense negotiations of any kind when hours of silence go by and each side waits for the other to blink.

Democrats were the last to draw a line in the sand over the abortion riders Republicans are demanding be included in the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and nearly a dozen other Democrats gathered en mass in the Capitol early Friday afternoon to denounce Republicans' insistence on using budget negotiations to play politics with women's health.

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Government Shutdown

New Offer On The Table As Clock Ticks Toward Government Shutdown

Brian Beutler | April 8, 2011, 3:10PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Maybe it isn't a take it or leave it situation for John Boehner. After a Democratic caucus meeting this afternoon, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, told reporters negotiators are discussing a new possible deal.

"While we were in there another offer is being analyzed," Conrad said. "And I don't know any of the details, I don't know if anybody does because it was just been received while we were in there."

At a press conference following the meeting, I asked Reid for the details of that offer. He kept it pretty close to the vest.

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Government Shutdown

Female Democratic Senators Accuse GOP of Using Shutdown to Hurt Women

Benjy Sarlin | April 8, 2011, 2:49PM

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Nine Democratic senators, all women, slammed House Republicans at a press conference Friday for threatening to shut down the government over provisions that would prevent funding for Planned Parenthood.

"The numbers have been agreed to, but it's an opportunity for the right wing in the House to really sock it to women,"Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said. "I don't usually use this language, but I really believe this is true."

The event was the latest by Democrats to draw attention to the anti-abortion policy riders, which they claim are the final sticking point in negotiations. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has denied they are the only issue, but has not said they would be left off the table in a final deal. Lawmakers at the press conference noted that federal funding for abortion was already banned by the Hyde Amendment and that Planned Parenthood's services were widely used for other health care purposes, including testing for cancer and providing contraceptive.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) told reporters that Republicans are "playing to their extremist supporters who care more about hurting women's health than reducing the deficit."

Democratic leaders, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), are aggressively playing up Republican intransigence on the policy riders. A small handful of Republican and conservative leaders have publicly suggested they're uncomfortable holding up negotiations over the issue.

Government Shutdown

Still Stuck: Boehner, Republicans Hold Out For More

Brian Beutler | April 8, 2011, 1:43PM

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), and other members of the GOP leadership

After an hour-long meeting with members of his caucus, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) emerged, only to repeat himself.

"All I can tell you is that almost all of the policy issues have been dealt with," he said. "And there is no agreement on the spending bill. Were working to try to get there."

It's notable because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) publicly outlined a final offer to Boehner, suggesting he wasn't able to sell the deal to his GOP caucus. The point of contention seems to be that Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood or extract out further spending cuts. Dems have drawn a line. And there are less than 11 hours between now and a government shutdown.

Planned Parenthood

Georgia Republican Tries To Explain How Abortion Rider Is About Jobs (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | April 8, 2011, 1:40PM

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA)

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) says that Republican freshmen in the House want Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to stick to his guns in budget negotiations ahead of the impending government shutdown. "This is all about jobs," Gingrey said, adding that it was about principle and not politics.

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Blake Farenthold

GOP Frosh On Government Shutdown: Planned Parenthood Rider Makes Up For Smaller Cuts

Ryan J. Reilly | April 8, 2011, 12:12PM

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX)

A Republican freshman member of the House says that riders on the continuing resolution bill -- like the one that bans funding for Planned Parenthood -- could make up for the fact that the GOP didn't cut a full $100 billion from President Barack Obama's budget proposal.

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) told TPM that the showdown is over two things: "keeping our promises to the people that elected us to cut spending and implement some policy changes."

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Government Shutdown

Dems Offer Billions To Save Planned Parenthood, Other Priorities

Brian Beutler | April 8, 2011, 11:37AM

A bit more info on the current impasse in negotiations to prevent a government shutdown.

A Senate source explains why numbers have changed in recent hours -- and it has to do with riders. Yesterday evening, Senate Dems were holding firm at cutting spending by $34.5 billion. Republicans wanted something closer to $39 billion. Today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) acknowledged, in a roundabout way, that the new consensus figure was $38 billion, and aides have since confirmed that number.

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Government Shutdown

Reid's Final Offer To GOP: Drop Planned Parenthood Rider Or Cause A Government Shutdown

Brian Beutler | April 8, 2011, 10:28AM

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has laid a final offer at Republicans' feet, and it will require them to drop their insistence on defunding Planned Parenthood, and accepting what Reid insists is an agreed upon level of spending cuts. If Republicans don't take it, and if Reid's not bluffing, the government will shutdown.

"The number we're not bending on," he told reporters in a press briefing Friday morning. "We're not bending on that and we're not bending on women's health."

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Budget

Dems Open To Bending On Some Policy to Strike Budget Deal

Susan Crabtree | March 29, 2011, 3:48PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) for the first time expressed a willingness to consider some GOP policy amendments that House Republicans are insisting lawmakers tack onto the spending bill to fund the government past April 8.

The concession is one hopeful sign in an otherwise stubborn standoff that both parties can strike a deal that avoids a government shutdown next week. But as with anything, the devil is in the details and which policy amendments the Democrats are considering.

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Abortion

Anti-Abortion Group Targets Planned Parenthood With Ad Featuring Former Employee

Jon Terbush | March 28, 2011, 10:18AM

The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List is targeting Planned Parenthood with a new television ad in which a former Planned Parenthood employee claims that the organization is concerned almost exclusively with making money from abortions, and not with providing health care to needy women.

"I learned that Planned Parenthood isn't about women's health at all," the former employee, Abby Johnson, says in the video. "Their primary profit center and their entire corporate culture is about abortions."

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Scott Brown

Scott Brown: It 'Goes Too Far' To Cut All Planned Parenthood Funding

Jillian Rayfield | March 22, 2011, 12:08PM

Senator Scott Brown (R-MA)

Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) says he opposes the drastic cuts to Planned Parenthood passed by the House in February because "the proposal to eliminate all funding for family planning goes too far."

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Herman Cain

Herman Cain: Planned Parenthood Should Be Called 'Planned Genocide'

Jon Terbush | March 16, 2011, 10:19AM

Herman Cain

Presidential aspirant and former pizza tycoon Herman Cain did not mince words when criticizing Planned Parenthood on Tuesday, saying the organization would be more aptly described as 'planned genocide.'

Speaking to a group of reporters at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Cain said he supported fully defunding Planned Parenthood -- as House Republicans have sought to do with their budget bill -- because, he claimed, the organization was founded with the goal of killing black babies before they were born.

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Planned Parenthood

Pro-Life Rep: Many GOPers Will Vote Against Spending Bill If It Doesn't Defund Planned Parenthood

Brian Beutler | March 4, 2011, 9:45AM

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH).

A pro-life leader in the House says he and many other Republicans will vote against legislation to fund the government through September if a series of anti-abortion riders, which already passed the House, aren't included in the final bill.

"I'm going to push so hard to make sure those are all in there," Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) told The Takeaway. "You can't back off, from a human rights perspective. If you do so you facilitate the demise of hundreds of thousands of children."

Smith said several Republicans would defect on the spending bill if the abortion riders are removed. He focused specifically on one amendment, authored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), eliminating federal funds for Planned Parenthood.

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Ann Buerkle

Rep. Buerkle Not Embracing Pro-Life Campaign In Her Name

Melissa Jeltsen | March 3, 2011, 3:40PM

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY)

An ad by a pro-life group that praises Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY) for her vote to defund Planned Parenthood is not exactly being welcomed by the first-term Congresswoman. Buerkle's spokesperson Liza Lowery told TPM the ads--which feature Buerkle's name and her smiling photo--were not made with her approval.

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Ann Buerkle

Dueling Ads On Buerkle's Planned Parenthood Vote

Melissa Jeltsen | March 1, 2011, 5:46PM

Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY)

A national anti-abortion group is rewarding Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-NY) for her vote to defund Planned Parenthood, with a spate of positive television ads. The ads---which will cost the Susan. B. Anthony List, a pro-life organization, a cool $75,000---will run for four days in Buerkle's congressional district.

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Government Shutdown

Reid Rejects Controversial GOP Spending Bill Riders

Brian Beutler | February 22, 2011, 4:47PM

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate will not accept the dozens of riders House Republicans added to their recently-passed spending bills -- policy measures that do everything from defund Planned Parenthood to rescind the EPA's authority to regulate pollution.

It's the latest salvo in the battle over funding the government -- and at some point House Republicans will have to decide whether they'll allow these measures to be flushed down the toilet.

Reid made the comments on a conference call to reporters after Republicans rejected his call for extending current spending levels for 30 days while the two parties craft a longer-term bill to cut those funds.

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Jackie Speier

Congresswoman Revealed Abortion Ahead Of Vote To Defund Planned Parenthood (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | February 18, 2011, 4:45PM

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA)

Before the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood on Friday, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) revealed on the floor of the House that she herself had had an abortion procedure.

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Planned Parenthood

House Passes Bill To Defund Planned Parenthood

Jillian Rayfield | February 18, 2011, 3:51PM

By a vote of 240-185, the House passed Rep. Mike Pence's (R-IN) amendment to strip Planned Parenthood of its federal funding.

According to MSNBC, ten Democrats voted to pass the measure, while seven Republicans voted against it.

The bill is not likely to make it through the Senate, where the Democrats have the majority, or to survive a veto by President Obama if it comes down to it.

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Title X

Women's Health Advocates Unfazed By GOP's War On Planned Parenthood

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 15, 2011, 4:10PM

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

A coalition of pro-choice groups and members of Congress gathered on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and effectively told Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) where he can put his plan to eliminate all federal funding of Planned Parenthood.

Still, given the Republican majority in the House, the best chance for opponents to derail the GOP proposal will be in the Senate, or if worse comes to worse, with the help of a presidential veto.

Pence has long called for an end to federal spending on the family planning organization, which receives about $360 million a year in taxpayer money from federal, state and local governments. Federal funds cannot be used for abortion, and are earmarked for family planning, cancer screenings and other women's health services.

A portion of that care falls under the so-called "Title X" provisions of the Public Health Service Act, a law that provides federal funding for family planning -- but not abortion, which cannot be paid for with federal money except in very strict circumstances, such as pregnancies resulting from rape. In their zeal to trim federal spending -- and, according to women's rights advocates on the Hill and elsewhere, as part of a plan to eliminate funding for contraception all together -- Republicans have eliminated Title X funding from their budget proposal.

When Pence's anti-Planned Parenthood bill and the Republican Title X plan are put together, it spells bad news for the family planning clinics who rely on government cash to provide services to low-income couples looking to have -- or not have -- children on their own schedule.

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Health Care

Pro-Choice Groups Plan Campaign To Get Senate To Reject Abortion Amendment In House Bill

Christina Bellantoni | November 10, 2009, 9:58AM

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI)

The Stupak amendment blocking abortion funding has become the hot button of the left, replacing (for now) the fight over the public option.

As President Obama suggested he doesn't think the measure belongs in the bill, reproductive rights groups are mobilizing to make sure the amendment doesn't make it any farther in the process.

"This is a middle class abortion ban and I don't think women are going to accept it," said Laurie Rubiner, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's vice president of policy.

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