This article first appeared online at The Daily Caller on April 12, 2011.
National pro-life groups disagree over Boehner’s shutdown strategy
By Matt Lewis
Two of the most prominent national pro-life organizations seem to disagree over the deal Speaker John Boehner struck to avoid a government shutdown.
Following the deal, Americans United for Life Action’s CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest issued a release, praising Boehner for achieving, what most said was impossible – cutting taxpayer funding of abortion in the District of Columbia and guaranteeing straight up-or-down votes in the Senate on both defunding Planned Parenthood and President Obama’s pro-abortion health care law…
(Last year, Americans United for Life gave John Boehner their “Defender of Life Award“.)
But Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser took a different tack, applauding Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) “for their steadfast leadership in the fight to defund Planned Parenthood of taxpayer dollars…”
Reps. Jordan and Pence both oppose the budget deal Boehner struck.
“Mike Pence and Jim Jordan have shown how seriously they take taxpayers’ non-negotiable demand to defund Planned Parenthood of our tax dollars,” Dannenfelser said. “They understand that a ban on taxpayer-funded abortions in the District of Columbia in the budget deal is good, but not good enough. They heard the insistence of voters to return government to its first principles, and they will not let those voters down.”
(Emphasis mine.)
To be sure, both groups agree that long-term defunding of Planned Parenthood is the ultimate goal. But clearly they differ strategically on how to get there.
Update: Boehner’s office is portraying it a bit differently …
