Pro-life leaders disappointed over spending bill that continues funding for Planned Parenthood

Pro-life leaders have expressed their disappointment over a bipartisan spending bill that would allow Planned Parenthood to continue receiving Medicaid funds until September.

Republican and Democrat lawmakers have reportedly reached an agreement to advance a $1 trillion spending deal that would fund the federal government through the end of the federal fiscal year on Sept. 30.

The deal has been considered as a victory for Democrats, who have maintained that they will not vote on the spending bill if it cuts funding for Planned Parenthood.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, said that the proposed legislation was "beyond frustrating," given that Republicans have made significant gains in the November elections running on a pro-life platform.

"The Republican Party is the only party with an anti-abortion platform and whose candidates ran specifically on the promise to defund Planned Parenthood, yet, here we are, watching them pass a bill that funds Planned Parenthood even though they control the House, Senate, and White House," she said in a statement, as reported by Washington Times.

Negotiators in Congress struck a deal on the spending bill on Sunday to avoid a looming government shutdown. The deal is not official yet, but both the House and Senate are expected to vote on the legislation this week.

The proposed legislation will not withhold funds from Planned Parenthood, which receives over $500 million in federal funding each year.

"With pro-life Republican majorities in both houses, it is incredibly disappointing that any Republican spending bill would contain continued funding for Planned Parenthood," said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, according to Life Site News.

"This makes it imperative that Republicans also move quickly on a reconciliation bill that redirects the abortion giant's funding to community health centers," she added.

The reconciliation bill would only require a simple majority to pass the Senate while the omnibus bill needs 60 Senate votes to pass.

In a press conference on Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced that "Planned Parenthood is not funded" in the budget reconciliation bill that would only require 51 votes to get through the Senate.

The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers have failed in passing a bill that would have repealed the Affordable Care Act and stripped most of the federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

However, in February, the House voted to overturn a last-minute Obama regulation that forced individual states to fund Planned Parenthood under Title X family planning grant program. Vice President Mike Pence cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate to rescind the regulation, and it was later signed by Trump.

"That effort to undo Obama's parting gift to the big abortion industry proves that the votes are there using reconciliation," Dannenfelser noted.