Yesterday’s procedural vote on Planned Parenthood left federal funding still standing for the organization that has been in the news recently for their practice of selling body parts from aborted babies.<\/p>\n
Undercover videos that recently emerged show that the organization has been selling fetal organs from both early and late-term abortions to tissue companies.<\/p>\n
The bill to defund Planned Parenthood, after the videos were released to the public, was proposed by first-term Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), with the Obama White House strongly opposed to it.<\/p>\n
Josh Earnest, the WH press secretary, told CNN on Monday that while he had not personally seen the videos, he believe the videos had been “selectively edited.” Of course this is despite\u00a0that fact that\u00a0full and unedited footage of the videos<\/a> has also been released by The Center for Medical Progress<\/a>, the organization behind the undercover operation.<\/p>\n Earnest also added in his CNN appearance, “What the President has said is that Planned Parenthood provides valuable services, health care services for men and women across the country. He would veto any legislation that tried to advance wholesale defunding for Planned Parenthood.”<\/p>\n The vote for cloture needed 60 votes to end debate and proceed to a vote on the defunding of the organization. It fell short of the needed 60, with a vote of 53-46, which ended largely along partisan lines.<\/p>\n Sen. Mark Kirk (R-IL) crossed his party line to vote with the Democrats, while Sen. Joe Machin (D-WV) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) voted\u00a0on the side of the Republicans. House Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) votes with the Democrats, however this was a vote he needed to cast to keep the option open for a re-vote.<\/p>\n Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is running in the Republican 2016 Presidential Primary, skipped the vote in order to\u00a0campaign in New Hampshire, while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who were also at an event in New Hampshire that night, went back to DC in order to cast their votes.<\/p>\n