Although the U.S. Senate defeated an effort to defund Planned Parenthood on Monday, the war against the national women’s health organization shows no signs of abating.
In GOP-controlled states, where abortion opponents have more power to pass legislation than they do on Capitol Hill, the current campaign to crack down on Planned Parenthood for allegedly “selling aborted baby parts” continues to gain steam.
The national spotlight is trained on the women’s health provider thanks to the release of several inflammatory videos depicting Planned Parenthood employees speaking frankly about the process of fetal tissue donation — an area of medical research that used to enjoy bipartisan support, but is currently being characterized as an immoral practice.
Planned Parenthood officials maintain they’re not profiting off fetal tissue, and say they simply partner with biological companies to help facilitate the transfer of the material. But abortion opponents — who have had their sights set on Planned Parenthood for decades — say the graphic videos are shocking and disturbing, and argue the footage proves that the organization shouldn’t receive any taxpayer support.
That’s what spurred this week’s national effort to defund the group, which the Senate was able to block because there weren’t enough lawmakers to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the measure. However, the controversy is far from over — particularly since the most pressing threat to Planned Parenthood is actually unfolding on the state level, where anti-abortion officials have begun to explore other options to go after the group.
Some lawmakers are introducing new legislation that appears to be written in direct response to the recently released videos. In Alabama, for instance, a Republican politician introduced a bill this week stipulating that “no person, entity, or association shall offer money or anything of value for an aborted fetus or any portion of an aborted fetus; nor shall any person, entity, or association accept any money or anything of value for an aborted fetus or any portion of an aborted fetus.”
Meanwhile, in states where controversies over Planned Parenthood have been raging for some time, the national conversation is helping to add some extra fuel to the fire.
Take Louisiana, for example, where Planned Parenthood currently does not offer abortion services but has been fighting to build its first abortion clinic in New Orleans for the past several years. The construction site in New Orleans has been plagued by opposition from anti-abortion activists, who have constantly protested the proposed clinic and have even successfully delayed the project by pressuring local contractors to avoid working for Planned Parenthood.
Now, thanks to the renewed national push against Planned Parenthood, it’s gotten even tougher for the organization to get that clinic off the ground. Last week, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) ordered a state investigation into Planned Parenthood’s activities, which will prevent the Department of Health and Hospitals from issuing a license to the New Orleans clinic. And this week, Jindal announced that Louisiana will terminate its Medicaid provider contract with Planned Parenthood, which is one of the organization’s major state-level funding streams.
And on Monday night, the situation appeared to take an even darker turn. The construction site of the new clinic was reportedly vandalized in the middle of the night, as an unidentified person was caught on security camera pouring gasoline on the clinic’s recently laid foundation and a nearby car. The car caught fire, and the New Orleans Fire Department is investigating the incident.
Planned Parenthood officials say they believe the fire was an intentional act of vandalism at a time when the extreme rhetoric against the organization has been particularly heightened.
“This isn’t just an attack on our health center; it’s an attack on expanded access to reproductive health care,” Melissa Flournoy, the director of Planned Parenthood Louisiana, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this arson attack is another example of the violence reproductive health care providers and advocates for abortion rights too often face.”
Political conversation about Planned Parenthood is often inflammatory. State lawmakers have compared the national women’s health organization to everything from ISIS to Nazis to crack dealers. The secretly recorded videos regarding fetal tissue donation have only spurred more of these comparisons. “This is your Nuremburg, Planned Parenthood,” the right-wing site Townhall declared this week.
Center for Medical Progress, the anti-abortion group behind the video campaign, also appears to be undeterred by the Senate vote. On Tuesday, the group released a new video focusing on fetal tissue donation at Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas. The latest release brings the total video count up to five.