Fiztpatrick, Meehan defend vote to cut Planned Parenthood aid

The culture wars are back.

Republican Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick and Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania, elected in the GOP wave of the fall, have found themselves the targets of radio ads for voting to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

"A costly war on women's health care," said the group's ad, which aired recently in the Philadelphia market. The Susan B. Anthony List, a group opposed to abortion, countered with a spot backing the two as "principled leaders" standing up to the nation's leading abortion provider.

Those messages are echoing in about a dozen swing congressional districts around the nation after House Republicans pushed through a spending-bill amendment two weeks ago that would cut off Planned Parenthood's funding. The government provides money to the group for birth control and health care, including screenings for cervical and breast cancer, for low-income women.

Federal funding for abortions is already barred by law, but Planned Parenthood has been a target of activists on the issue because it is also the largest provider of abortions in the nation, with 328,000 performed in 2008, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Planned Parenthood uses private money to cover abortion costs.

On Thursday, Planned Parenthood released polling that showed public support for its continued funding. It hopes to stop the measure in the Senate.

"I think it was a mistake on the part of the House leadership," Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards, in an interview Thursday, said of the funding-cutoff vote. She cited increased Web traffic and donations to her group, and signatures on an Internet petition opposing the cuts.

"This has absolutely just lit a fire under women and men all across America," Richards said.

Fifty-seven percent of voters surveyed in 10 key states, including Pennsylvania, opposed barring federal funding for Planned Parenthood, while 36 percent supported doing so, the survey by Public Policy Polling found. Among those surveyed, independent voters opposed the cutoff 56 percent to 37 percent.

Among the 612 survey respondents in Pennsylvania, support for continued funding for Planned Parenthood was 67 percent to 27 percent, with 55 percent saying they would be less likely to vote for a senator who supported barring funding. The margin of error was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) is up for reelection next year. Casey supports the federal funding for contraception and women's health care and would vote against the Planned Parenthood cuts if they should come up for a vote in the Senate, a spokesman said.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm from Raleigh, N.C., worded the questions to include descriptions of Planned Parenthood's health services. The word abortion was not used.

"It's interesting that Planned Parenthood is testing and polling its brand - they've been very successful in portraying themselves as altruistic," said former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R., Colo.), project director for the Susan B. Anthony List.

"Money is fungible; the more money they have from the American taxpayer, the more abortions they can provide," Musgrave said in an interview.

A separate Pennsylvania poll conducted for the state chapter of Planned Parenthood found that 65 percent of respondents supported, and 29 percent opposed, a continuation of state funding that goes to the group for contraception and health services. The level of support was 77 percent in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

The poll of 1,200 state voters was conducted jointly by Susquehanna Polling, a Republican firm, and Global Strategy Group, a Democratic firm. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that providing birth control saves taxpayers money, detecting cancer early saves taxpayers money," said Sari Stevens, executive director of Planned Parenthood in Pennsylvania.

Meehan, in an interview, defended his vote.

"That was not an easy vote to cast, by any stretch of the imagination," the congressman from Delaware County said. "I support the concept of preventative health care for women, to be sure, but was deeply concerned about the many voters in my district who expressed opposition to their tax dollars' being used by an organization that promotes abortion."

House members led by Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.) attached the Planned Parenthood measure to a bill that would fund the government for the remaining seven months of this fiscal year, doing so during a chaotic debate in which several hundred amendments were considered. The House, Senate, and White House are discussing how to proceed on the controversial spending bill while a two-week stopgap measure is in effect until March 18.

"The decision was put in front of me - a yes-or-no vote - and there was no ability to work for any kind of alternative," Meehan said. But, he said, "I did not hide from people that I'm prolife."

Fitzpatrick, from Bucks County, did not return a call seeking comment.

The fight over Planned Parenthood funding is playing out in a political atmosphere with opponents of abortion rights emboldened in Congress and state legislatures.

On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R., N.J.) that would prohibit health-insurance plans from receiving federal funding if they provide coverage for abortion, except in cases of incest, rape, and danger to the woman's life. It also would also bar tax deductions for health policies that cover abortion.

Jeff Sagnip, a spokesman for Smith, said much of the activity on the abortion issue was a reaction to Obama administration actions relaxing abortion restrictions, such as contributing U.S. money to the United Nations Population Fund. But he said the House had focused on many other matters, including budget cuts.

A separate bill sponsored by Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.) would ban the insurance exchanges that will be established by the health-care law in 2014 from offering for purchase policies that cover abortions.

Pitts' bill was approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Feb. 15 and awaits a floor vote.