President Obama’s top healthcare official defended federal funding for Planned Parenthood at a hearing on Tuesday as Republicans zeroed in on cutting off its money.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell focused her comments on how the federal funding for Planned Parenthood provides mammograms and other services for women.
“What I think is important is that our HHS funding is focused on issues of preventative care for women, things like mammograms and cancer prevention screenings,” Burwell told the House Education and the Workforce Committee.
“We do not fund abortion,” she added, though Burwell noted there are some exceptions to the Hyde Amendment, a law that prohibits federal funding of abortion.
Planned Parenthood has often been a GOP target, but the political storm surrounding the nonprofit has reacheda fever pitch following the release of a series of undercover videos showing officials candidly discussing the donation of fetal tissue for medical research.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the chamber will vote to cut off funding for the organization before leaving next week for the August recess.
Lawmakers, including a group of 49 senators last week, have called on HHS to investigate Planned Parenthood.
“I would like some commitment from you here today on when your department will conduct an investigation on this very, very serious matter,” Rep. Rick Allen (R-Ga.) said Tuesday.
Burwell resisted those calls, deferring to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
She noted that Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said that Justice is conducting a review.
Planned Parenthood had apologized for an official’s “tone and statements” in the first video but said it has broken no laws and argued that the released videos had been heavily edited to inflict political pain on the organization.
Even then, Planned Parenthood said officials in the videos made it clear they were looking for legal compensation for expenses, not profit.
Still, the videos inflicted a toll on the group. It has turned to the public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker to help in its defense. The firm sent a memo on Monday night that discouraged the media from covering the videos.
“The extremists who entered Planned Parenthood labs under false pretenses violated research protocol, and, worse, violated the privacy of patients involved,” the memo stated. “Those patients’ privacy should not be further violated by having this footage shared by the media.”
Most Democrats have come to the defense of Planned Parenthood.
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