Republicans want to defund Planned Parenthood, not shut down the government, Sen. James Lankford insisted Monday.
"This is about children," the Oklahoma Republican, who is co-sponsoring a bill with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to defund Planned Parenthood, told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "We have children with fingers and toes and hearts and livers and lungs that are literally being torn apart and sold piece by piece."
Lankford told the program that he came to the Senate from the House, where "Democrats accused us over and over again" of trying to shut down the government, and now that he's in the Senate, it's happening again.
"It's fascinating to me, as soon as I got to the Senate, we were in the majority and immediately, Democrats started saying you're trying to get another government shutdown again," Lankford said.
Last week,
18 House Republicans told leaders that they "cannot and will not support any funding resolution that contains any funding for Planned Parenthood," and Lankford and Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions have said they might introduce a rider to the spending bill to eliminate the $528 million in public funding the controversial program receives.
Lankford said on the Monday program that, according to a series of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials, Planned Parenthood would be breaking federal law if it is proven that the timing and methods of abortions it conducts are changed to harvest and sell fetal tissue and organs.
"A lot of people are extremely concerned about this basic issue," he said. "Is that a life? It is a life and it should be protected," Lankford said, adding he expects the bill to meet with support from both parties.
And if that doesn't happen, the push for defunding will continue, he said.
"A lot of Americans are upset about so much of their tax dollars going to this organization," he said. "This is not a new issue, as you know well and as I know well."
If public funding is removed from Planned Parenthood women will not find themselves without health services, Lankford said, as the funding will be rerouted to the nation's 9,000 community health centers that provide full-service healthcare.
"We'll take that funding that was provided and transition it to community health centers," said Lankford. "There are 650 or so Planned Parenthood clinics around the country. There are 9,000 community health centers around the country.
"They actually provide full service healthcare to lots of folks in poverty around the country, including contraceptives, and including not just the screenings but the initial treatment as well."
Watch the video here.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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