Almost all Republican Senators present Monday night distanced themselves from Texas Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood via the budget appropriation process.
Cruz sought to attach an amendment to the appropriations bill which would have stripped Planned Parenthood of its taxpayer funding, but his motion for a roll call vote was not seconded by the 11 senators necessary to hold the vote. Cruz subsequently moved for a voice vote, which fellow Republicans booed. Only Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), another outspoken critic of Planned Parenthood, sided with Cruz.
Afterward, Cruz blasted the rebuke as an “unprecedented procedural trick” and accused his colleagues of not wanting to put their vote on the record: “When you are breaking the commitment you’ve made to the men and women who elected you, the most painful thing in the world is accountability.”
Cruz, who has fiercely condemned Planned Parenthood and pledged to prosecute and defund the abortion giant as president, also argued that amending must-pass legislation such as budget resolutions is the only viable way to get pro-life results under a pro-abortion president, and lamented “that the Republican leadership in both houses will not fight for a single priority that we promised the voters we would fight for when we were campaigning less than a year ago.”
Cruz says he will again attempt to force a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood today, on Tuesday.
