Students for Life Action (SFLAction) President Kristan Hawkins said that a monthlong mobilization would run through the month of June, focusing on 12 GOP senators in particular:
Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Susan Collins (Maine), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah), Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rand Paul (Ky.), Rick Scott (Fla.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Todd Young (Ind.).
“Our target list of U.S. senators represents friends and sometimes foes, all of whom are expressing reluctance on the need to set aside our differences to prioritize getting abortion vendors out of our healthcare spending. Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion,” Hawkins said in a statement.
The Senate is expected to make some significant changes to the House version of the bill. Murkowski and Collins have already expressed uneasiness over the provision tied to Planned Parenthood, and Senate Republicans can only afford to lose three votes.
Federal funding is already banned from being used to cover abortions, but the House’s legislation would expand that to prohibit funds flowing to any health care organization focusing on family planning and reproductive health that provides abortions. The bill doesn’t explicitly mention Planned Parenthood, but it’s the only such health center that also provides abortions.
The legislation aims to save hundreds of billions of dollars from health provisions; according to congressional scorekeepers, the Planned Parenthood provision is the only one that costs money.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund says if the bill passes, one-third of Planned Parenthood health centers across the country — nearly 200 — could close. The majority of medical services the centers provide are sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment and contraception, but Republicans say any other community health center or physician office can do the same.
Hawkins said her organization will score the vote, a rarity for a budget bill.
