House panel to hear bills strengthening abortion laws

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will consider two bills on Thursday aimed at tightening abortion restrictions amid controversy over Planned Parenthood. 

{mosads}The bills tighten enforcement of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002, which looked to protect babies born alive after a failed abortion, and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which outlawed a controversial form of late-term abortion. 

The new measures would prevent any health provider proven to violate these laws from participating in Medicare, and allow states to ban the providers from Medicaid. 

Republican leaders are looking for ways to avoid a risky government shutdown fight with Democrats, and these bills could help channel some anti-abortion energy away from the funding fight. 

Still, leaders face a tough task in finding a way forward. Thirty-one conservative lawmakers have vowed not to vote for any spending bill that includes Planned Parenthood funds. 

Committee leaders said the bills would help address the disrespect toward life expressed in the controversial undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price of fetal tissue donation for medical research. Planned Parenthood denies wrongdoing and says legal compensation for expenses is being discussed. 

“As the investigations into the despicable actions demonstrated in the series of videos continue, these bills take an important step forward in protecting human life,” Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and subcommittee Chairman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) said in a statement. “Banning taxpayer funding is a powerful enforcement tool that will ensure the vital laws established in 2002 and 2003 are enforced with every tool available. No human life should be talked about or treated with the disrespect and disregard demonstrated in the recent videos.”

The committee also said it has conducted six interviews as part of its investigation to date, including with Dr. Deborah Nucatola, the Planned Parenthood senior director of medical services, who appears in the first undercover video.