Planned Parenthood funding central to federal budget
Republicans have demanded that federal funding to US largest family planning organisation a condition of approving the budget
Planned Parenthood members at a Pro-Choice rally. The family planning group central to the federal budget shutdown battle. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
The battle over the budget has seen a revival of the culture wars of old, with negotiations over a shutdown that could put 800,000 federal workers temporarily out of work coming down to a dispute over abortion.
The leadership of the Republican party has made a block on federal funding for Planned Parenthood, which also offers services such as birth control and cancer screening, a requirement of approving the budget.
The revival of such an ideological demand puzzled commentators who point out it has nothing to do with the state of the US economy or with fighting the deficit and suggests that the party remains hung up on abortion as a core issue. The New York Times, in an editorial, said it amounted to "policy extortion".
Planned Parenthood was formed in 1916 in Brooklyn as the first US birth control clinic. It now has more than 800 clinics across the country.
The head of the organisation, Cecile Richards, told the Huffington Postthat women would suffer in many ways from the proposed funding block. "What has been proposed is that women can no longer go to Planned Parenthood to get their cancer screenings, to get their birth control, to get any kind of services through federal programs."
Should a ban on federal funding of Planned Parenthood go through, control over the award of taxpayers' money to the organisation would fall to individual states. Those states controlled by Republicans would be unlikely to agree to pass on any funds.
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