The House voted to defund Planned Parenthood Friday with the support of two Democrats and all but three Republicans.
The (241-187) vote is an effectively symbolic response to a series of videos released by the Center for Medical Progress in which top Planned Parenthood doctors and officials discuss how and at what cost some of their clinics harvest and distribute aborted fetuses.
Republican Reps. Robert Dold, Charlie Dent and Richard Hanna sided with Democrats against the bill, which would defund Planned Parenthood for a year. Every other Republican representative present, along with Democratic Reps. Dan Lipinski and Collin Peterson voted in favor of the defunding bill.
In a follow up vote, the House passed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (248-177), which would punish doctors who do not try to save babies born alive in botched abortion procedures. Every Republican voting and five Democrats supported that bill.
Neither bill is likely to go anywhere.
Some Republicans, including the House Freedom Caucus, say they’re willing to shutdown the government in order to strip Planned Parenthood of its $500 million of funding — Congress has less than a week to work out a funding deal.
Senate Democrats blocked even a vote on a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in August, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he won’t allow a shutdown over the matter.
Five representatives opted out of the Planned Parenthood vote Friday: Democrats Adam Smith and Mike Thompson, and Republicans Stephen Fincher, Jeff Fortenberry and Ann Wagner.
Republican Rep. Steve King voted “present.”
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