Several legislative efforts to defund Planned Parenthood of federal tax dollars are in the works after two undercover videos appear to show doctors affiliated with the group discussing the exchange of organs and other body parts from aborted fetuses.
In the days after the videos went public, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, also a GOP presidential contender, announced he would move to strip some of the roughly $500 million in taxpayer money given to Planned Parenthood each year.
"This organization has absolutely zero respect for the sanctity of human life and is an affront to the most basic human dignity enshrined in our founding documents," he said.
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., introduced a measure aimed at the same goal.
Over the last 10 years, Planned Parenthood has gotten more than $4 BILLION DOLLARS in state and federal government aid.
Any bid to defund the organization may face long odds.
But how much is it costing you?
Taxpayer Calculator: CLICK TO SEE YOUR SHARE OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD ...
Here's a sample: Individuals making between $50,000 and $100,000 paid just $15.51 toward Planned Parenthood. However, those making more than that paid considerably more. Individuals making above $250,000 have paid, on average, roughly $420 toward the organization.
Planned Parenthood, though, is fighting back against efforts to strip federal funding. Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, in her first live interview regarding the controversy, on Sunday said the organization has broken no laws and slammed the group that produced the videos, the Center for Medical Progress.
"The folks behind this, in fact, are part of the most militant wing of the anti-abortion movement that has been behind, you know, the bombing of clinics, the murder of doctors in their homes and in their churches," she told ABC's "This Week." "And that's what actually needs to be looked at."
Federal law prohibits the sale of human organs and commercial trafficking of human fetal remains, but Planned Parenthood maintains it was making donations to researchers and not profiting.
While some states have launched investigations into Planned Parenthood, in California, Attorney General Kamala Harris has vowed to look into whether CMP broke any laws.
CMP used actors posing as tissue-procurement buyers and shot video of a lunch meeting with a Planned Parenthood official in which she discussed performing an abortion in such a way as to preserve specific organs.
During that same meeting, the abortion doctor said the cost of specimens would range from roughly $30 to $100 each.
Republican Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee, a nurse for more than 40 years and a member of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said the videos are disturbing. "This is a very indicting case where you sit at a table and negotiate," she said. "If they weren't selling these parts, why would they not meet with someone in an office setting and say, 'Here is what we do.'"
Black has submitted the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015. It would place a moratorium on all federal funding for one year while Congress completes its own investigation.
A second CMP video records another doctor also discussing the transfer of fetal remains. During one part of the recording, as the parties discuss "compensation" for the body parts, she is recorded laughing as she states, "I want a Lamborghini."
Richards called the stealth recordings "a complete political smear campaign in order to cut off funding for basic health care for women in America at Planned Parenthood."
She also said doctors were lied to and entrapped. Richards said Planned Parenthood is fighting for women and called the group's treatment programs the "most important" thing.
Democrats have echoed those comments and seem unlikely to join any effort to defund the group.
Top House Democrat, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, said Republicans have been "out to get" Planned Parenthood for "as long as" she can remember. Pelosi is also among those advocating for an investigation of CMP.
"Women's health is what is at stake, and Planned Parenthood is a very important part of promoting women's health in our country," she said.
2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has said little about the controversy. After the release of the second video, Clinton said she didn't have all of the facts but that Planned Parenthood had apologized for the insensitivity of its employees in the discussions captured on video.
Clinton also said she thought it was "unfortunate that Planned Parenthood had been the object of such concerted attacks for so many years and it's really an attack against women's rights to choose."
With the August congressional recess looming, it's unclear how GOP lawmakers plan to proceed on the measures aimed at stripping Planned Parenthood of funding. Many states also provide funding to the organization, and battles over those state tax dollars have likewise been heated in recent years.
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