A procedural vote on Monday that could have led to Planned Parenthood of America losing its federal funding fell short for Senate Republicans, the Huffington Post reported.
The bill, sponsored by Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, amassed 53 votes in support -- seven short of the 60 needed to make it to the Senate floor for debate. The 53-46 vote broke down mostly along party lines: only two Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, voted to sending the motion to debate, while only one Republican, Mark Kirk of Illinois, voted against doing so.
The vote came after GOP lawmakers seized on a series of videos released by an anti-abortion group, the Center for Medical Progress, purportedly showing Planned Parenthood officials making deals to sell fetal tissue for profit.
However, as Media Matters and other outlets have reported, the videos have been shown to be edited deceptively; the unedited versions of the videos show no illegal activity by Planned Parenthoods.
RH Reality Check further reported that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has launched an investigation to determine whether the group violated not only state law, but statutes connected with its standing in the state Registry of Charitable Trusts.
The vote came after several Republican presidential contenders called for Planned Parenthood to be defunded. One of them, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, canceled a contract on Monday providing state funding for the organization.
