Abortion Funding And Congress

24:24

February 24, 2011

New moves against abortion in Congress. From private insurance to Planned Parenthood, we get the latest.

Bryan Howard, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona, Inc., poses in front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Tucson, Ariz. (AP)

House Republicans came back to Capitol Hill after November victories around the country vowing to cut the deficit and gear up jobs. Right behind that agenda has also come a sharp new attack on abortion.

A big slug of budget-cutting has been tightly aimed at Planned Parenthood, and de-funding it. There’s been the push to limit assistance to “forcible rape” cases - whatever that means - and to block private health insurance coverage of abortion.

Federal funding of abortion is already banned. But there’s room to tighten and the push is on.

This hour On Point: the new Congress versus abortion.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Frances Kissling, visiting scholar at University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, where she is reaching current controversies on abortion. Kissling is a weekly columnist covering religion, reproduction and politics for Salon.com and is the former president of Catholics for Choice.
William Saletan, national correspondent for Slate.com and author of "Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War."
Kellie Fiedorek, staff counsel on federal government affairs for Americans United for Life.
Felicia Somnez, Congressional correspondent and political blogger with the Washington Post's 2Chambers.

This program aired on February 24, 2011.