In a 54-46 vote, the Senate has voted to block all federal funding to Planned Parenthood.
Nearly all Senate Republicans voted to defund the organization as part of one of their plan to repeal President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. However, the White House has said that President Obama will veto any bill that eliminates funding to Planned Parenthood.
The women’s health organization has been at the forefront of conversations on Capitol Hill since a video was released last summer allegedly showing Planned Parenthood executives discussing selling fetal organs for stem cell research (officials claim that they receive permission from women before donating fetal tissue for medical research purposes).
Protecting Our Reproductive Rights: What We Face If Planned Parenthood is Defunded
In September, the House voted to defund Planned Parenthood, which upset many Democratic representatives who said that the cuts would have catastrophic consequences on millions of women—the majority of whom are not seeking abortions.
“There were over four million visits to Planned Parenthood clinics last year, and over 90 percent of this was basic women’s health care and not abortions,” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) said on the House floor during the September vote. “Why are we talking about this legislation? Planned Parenthood doe these services, and no federal funds are spent on abortion services that Planned Parenthood does provide. But yet the majority will take the radical step of denying women of the basic health care they need.”
President Obama is expected to veto the bill in the coming days.