Faithful Citizenship in Pa's 1st Congressional District and the Central Garden State

US House and Planned Parenthood

• On July 21st, U.S. Representative Diane Black introduced HR3134, "the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015."  
• Please note that Mike Fitzpatrick is NOT among the 162 co-sponsors of HR 3134 (https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/3134/all-info).

US Senate and Planned Parenthood

• On 7/22/15, U.S. Senator James Lankford introduced S1836, "A bill to provide for a moratorium on Federal funding Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc."  S1836 has 3 co-sponsors. 
• On 7/24/15, U.S. Senator Rand Paul introduced S1861, "A bill to prohibit Federal funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America."  S1861 has 4 co-sponsors
• Both Lankford and Paul are now among the 32 co-sponsors of Senator Joni Ernt's S 1881, "A bill to prohibit Federal funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America," which was introduced on 7/28/15.  Unfortunately, a look at a press release on Senator Toomey's web site indicates that S 1881 may be a weakened compromise.  There does not appear to any restrictions on the redirection of monies:

"U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has cosponsored legislation to defund Planned Parenthood and preserve federal funding for women's health services. The legislation, which was introduced by U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), would preserve federal funding for women's health services including relevant diagnostic laboratory and radiology services, well-child care, prenatal and postpartum care, immunization, family planning services including contraception, sexually transmitted disease testing, cervical and breast cancer screenings, and referrals.

"'Recently, we have seen horrific videos further demonstrating that Planned Parenthood has an appalling disregard for human life,' said Sen. Toomey. 'While I support women's health, there is no reason why taxpayers should be providing hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies each year to this organization. Those dollars should instead be used to help community health centers or other organizations that provide affordable health care services to women. In addition, I hope the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services will investigate whether, indeed, the law banning the sale of body parts was broken by Planned Parenthood.'

"Funds no longer available to Planned Parenthood would continue to be available for other eligible entities, such as community health centers, that provide women's health care services" (http://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=news&id=1592).

In any case and despite what it says on Toomey's web site, neither Casey nor Toomey are listed as being among the 32 co-sponsors of S 1881.

Alerts:  On a federal level, Catholic leadership is supporting HR940, HR1150, HR824 / S435, S1553, HR2802 / S1598, HR1299 / S667, and S1177, as well as passage of HR 7 in the Senate.

You can find "alerts" about specific federal legislation advocated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at "ALERTS CENTRAL" (http://cqrcengage.com/catholicbishops/action).  The USCCB notes that

• "Action alerts for pro-life issues can also be found through our partner organization, the "National Committee for the Human Life Amendment" (NCHLA)  [http://www.nchla.org/action.asp], and that 
• "Action alerts for issues related to immigration reform can be found through the USCCB-led Catholic coalition, "Justice for Immigrants" [http://www.capwiz.com/justiceforimmigrants/issues/alert/?alertid=14503781&type=CO].  

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC) also posts alerts (https://www.votervoice.net/PACC/Campaigns).