Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell made good on his promise to set up a vote soon on a bill that would de-fund the Planned Parenthood abortion business in the wake of a scandal over it selling aborted baby body parts.
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used a procedural move to let the House bill skip over the Senate’s committee process and be placed directly on the Senate calendar, where it could be teed up for action on the floor,” The Hill reports.
While the legislation hasn’t been scheduled yet to be brought up on the Senate floor, the Republican leader told reporters that the chamber will take up the reconciliation package after Thanksgiving. Lawmakers are heading out of town for a week-long recess, and they’ll return to Washington on Nov. 30.

The bill would block, for one year, most federal payments to Planned Parenthood. At least 89% of federal funding of Planned Parenthood would be blocked by this bill. The bill would repeal a number of major components of the Obamacare health law, including two of the major provisions that will lead to rationing of lifesaving care — the “Independent Payment Advisory Board” and the “excess benefits tax.”
Dozens of leading pro-life groups have already indicated their support for the bill, including the National Right to Life Committee. In a letter to members of Congress that NRLC provided to LifeNews.com, the group indicated it strongly supports the bill to de-fund Planned Parenthood.

​(link to article and contact info. for Republican Senators considering a "no" vote)

Prayer and action has always been an effective combination for the pro-life movement as it seeks to combat the travesty of abortion. And, in the latest 40 Days for Life prayer campaign, that tandem paid off again as leaders report nine abortion clinic workers quit their jobs thanks to the public presence of pro-life people offering alternatives to abortion.
“We’ve received confirmation that during the just-completed 40 Days for Life campaign, NINE more abortion workers QUIT their jobs,” said Shawn Carney, the head of 40 Days for Life.
Carney said the latest campaign, along with the videos exposing Planned Parenthood selling aborted baby parts, have produced results and “Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are at an all-time low” and he congratulated pro-life people on the “staggering results your prayers and efforts helped to achieve — in 307 cities around the globe — during the just-completed 40 Days for Life campaign .”
(read more)

This week, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) released a study on this question. Their argument is that after the state bill known as HB 2 went into effect in 2013 — resulting in the closure of more than half of the abortion facilities in Texas — the number of self-induced abortions among Texas women has significantly increased.
A closer look at TxPEP’s study, purporting to show HB 2’s harmful effects on women, reveals that it has numerous methodological shortcomings. In fact, it provides absolutely no credible evidence whatsoever that self-induced abortions have increased in Texas since HB 2 went into effect.
(read full article)