The president just vetoed a bill halting taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. But don’t expect to hear about it from the broadcast network news.
During their morning and evening news shows, all three networks censored Wednesday’s U.S. House vote to strip federal funding of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion mill. While ABC, NBC and CBS turned a blind-eye, other traditional media outlets and pro-life leaders reported on the “first [defunding] bill ever to get to the president’s desk.”
The Senate-approved reconciliation bill, which would have repealed key provisions in Obamacare in addition to defunding Planned Parenthood, passed in the House 240 to 181 as Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act (H.R. 3762). If made law, the bill would have reallocated federal funding for the abortion giant to comprehensive health care centers.
On Friday, President Obama predictably vetoed the bill.
Only time will tell if president’s move will cause the networks to pay attention.
In spite of the ABC, NBC and CBS’ silence, prominent news outlets including The New York Times and USA Today noted the House vote.
The liberal media also can’t shrug off their censorship by calling the vote a “stunt.” Just think of how reporters latched on to Sandra Fluke’s testimony demanding taxpayer funding of contraception, which wasn’t even part of an actual congressional hearing.
The Pro-Life Response
While the networks kept quiet, pro-life leaders rejoiced over the vote.
Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser applauded the “first bill ever to get to the president’s desk that would achieve this longtime pro-life goal, and reallocate taxpayer funding.”
“If Americans elect a pro-life president this year, and safeguard our pro-life majorities in Congress,” she continued, “this bill – and many others – could be law by 2017.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins also released a statement about Congress’ “clear message” with the bill.
"Never before has Congress been able to send a bill to President Obama's desk ending the forced partnership between taxpayers and Planned Parenthood,” he said.
Center for Medical Progress project lead David Daleiden commended Congress for “listening to the will of the American people” and “hold[ing] Planned Parenthood accountable under the law for their barbaric abortion and baby parts business.”
Referring to the president’s recent gun control speech, Daleiden criticized the president’s selective concern for children.
“President Obama wiped tears from his eyes saying: ‘Every time I think about those kids, it gets me mad,’” Daleiden continued. “Mr. President, show the same outrage and compassion for the kids who are killed and harvested for body parts at Planned Parenthood, and parted out and sold across the country like used cars.”
As National Director of Priests for Life, Fr. Frank Pavone commended Congress for responding to, among other things, the recent videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of aborted baby parts.
“There is no amount of Planned Parenthood’s ‘services’ that can possibly justify our government giving one dime,” he argued, “much less hundreds of millions of dollars, to a business that treats children worse than lab rats.”
Expressing similar sentiments, Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins recognized the vote in a press statement.
“Congress finally got clever and used a creative method to ensure that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain, doesn’t receive the millions of taxpayer dollars it has over the past several years and instead,” she said, “redirects that money to actual healthcare organizations that serve women instead of putting a price tag on them and their preborn babies.”
