Pro-Life Rep: Many GOPers Will Vote to Shut Down Gov’t If It Doesn’t Defund Planned Parenthood
A pro-life leader in the House says he and many other Republicans will vote against legislation to fund the government through September if a series of anti-abortion riders, which already passed the House, aren’t included in the final bill.
“I’m going to push so hard to make sure those are all in there,” Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) told Public Radio International. “You can’t back off, from a human rights perspective. If you do so you facilitate the demise of hundreds of thousands of children.”
Smith said several Republicans would defect on the spending bill if the abortion riders are removed. He focused specifically on one amendment, authored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), eliminating federal funds for Planned Parenthood.
the biggest risk of a government shutdown at this point isn’t that Democrats and Republicans will disagree on spending levels. It’s that they’ll clash over policy riders on abortion, the health care law, EPA authority, etc. If Smith isn’t bluffing, Speaker John Boehner will need a lot of Democratic support to pass a final spending bill through the House.
