Republican senator tries to highjack veterans benefit bill with an attack on Planned Parenthood.

You may have heard about the anti-abortion gorilla group that sends out fake "prospective clients" to Planned Parenthood clinics and secretly tapes conversations, trying to entrap their staff into saying something that they then selectively edit to use as ammunition for political purposes in their war on abortion.

Still within reveberations of that latest attack on Planned Parenthood came this attempt by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) to amend a bill introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA).  The bill would help female military veterans receive fertility treatments and family planning counseling.

Sen. Tillis claimed that he was concerned over priorities and that they should be taking care of the most pressing problems facing veterans.   Apparently he felt that advancing the fake charges against Planned Parenthood was one of those pressing problems.  His amendment would bar the VA from working with organizations that "take aborted babies' organs and sell them."

The subject of the latest stealth attack on Planned Parenthood was the false charge that PP "sells" organs from aborted fetuses (which they call babies).   They do make available to legitimate research organizations organs from aborted fetuses, where the mother has given consent for tissues to be used for research that is vital to finding new treatments for diseases like Parkinsonism.   They do not "sell" anything;   but it is perfectly legal to charge for certain expenses necessary for the process.    The secret tapes had been edited to look like the PP staff member was discussing "selling price" when discussing these expenses.

Sen. Murray is a no-nonsense person, and she would have none of it.   She immediately pulled her bill from committee consideration and had this to say: 

"I know some Republicans are trying to use this latest issue as just one more opportunity to roll back the clock and take away women’s health care options.  We can have that fight. We’ve had it many times before. But don’t pull veterans into the middle of it. Don’t take something that should be above politics -- our sacred duty to our veterans -- and pull it down into the muck of petty politics. It’s not fair to veterans and their families, who have been hoping and praying for the opportunity to have children."

Rather than let senate Republicans taint her veterans benefit bill with anti-abortion politics, Sen. Murray withdrew her bill to engage the fight another day.

Sen. Tillis is the man who rode the conservative wave taking over North Carolina politics.  He defeated the incumbent Democrat Sen. Kay Hagen in a close, hard-fought race.

Thanks, North Carolina.   Elections have consequences.   This was a bad choice you made.

Ralph

Thaniks to Marina Fang of the Huffington Post for background.