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The House has passed two abortion-related bills that could have implications in the looming budget battle.
One bill would defund Planned Parenthood for a year, while another would impose criminal penalties on physicians if they fail to provide proper medical care following a live birth during an abortion procedure.
The Sept. 18 votes were met with opposition from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Dr. Mark DeFrancesco, the organization’s president, called passage of legislation dealing with live births during an abortion “gross legislative interference into the practice of medicine, putting politicians between women and their trusted doctors.”
Dr. Mark S. DeFrancesco
“This bill and others like it are part of a larger attempt to deny women access to safe, legal, evidence-based abortion care,” he said in a statement.
Neither bill is likely to be passed by the Senate or signed by President Obama, though both could play a role in the coming budget negotiations. Republicans have threatened to stall funding bills and shut down the government should efforts to defund Planned Parenthood fail. The deadline to pass budget legislation and prevent a government shutdown is Sept. 30.
The “Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 (H.R. 3134). would place a moratorium on funding of Planned Parenthood for 1 year unless the organization certifies that its clinics “will not perform, and will not provide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abortion during such period.”
The bill makes an exception to allow for abortions in the case of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger.
H.R. 3134 passed 241-187 on a near party-line vote, with two Democrats voting in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood, while three Republicans voted against it.
House Republicans said they set the funding moratorium for 1 year to allow for the completion of investigations into whether Planned Parenthood violated federal law by engaging in the sale of fetal tissue obtained during abortions.
The “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 3504), would require any health care practitioner who is present when a child is born alive following an abortion or attempted abortion to “exercise the same degree of care as reasonably provided to any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and ensure that such child is immediately admitted to a hospital.”
The bill passed nearly along party lines in a 248-177 vote. No Republicans voted against the bill, while five Democrats voted in favor of it.
Physicians who violate the law would be subject to a fine, up to 5 years in prison, or both.
