Defunding Planned Parenthood, widely supported by Republicans since the release of hidden-camera videos of officials discussing the price of aborted fetuses for medical research, will have to wait for a new president, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says.
"The president's made it very clear he's not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood, so that's another issue that awaits a new president, hopefully with a different point of view about Planned Parenthood," McConnell said on the Kentucky station
WYMT's "Issues and Answers."
His comments start at 23:36.
Story continues below video.
Planned Parenthood has alleged the
tapes are part of a "smear."
McConnell said the Senate would vote again on defunding Planned Parenthood, but argued the votes aren't there.
"We just don't have the votes to get the outcome that we'd like," he said. "Again, the president has the pen to sign it. If he doesn't sign it, it doesn't happen. But, yeah, we voted on that already in the Senate, we'll vote on it again, but I would remind all of your viewers the way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it and the president has to sign it."
McConnell will be under pressure from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and other presidential candidates not to include any Planned Parenthood funding in the larger government spending bill this fall,
The Hill reports.
And if Obama then vetoed the bill, as expected, there would be a government shutdown.
But the Kentucky lawmaker last month vowed there
would be no shut down over the issue, declaring: "There's no education in the second kick of a mule."
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