Budget talks in the house have dissolved in part because of what Sen. Harry Reid describes as ideological disagreements about abortion and the environment . Republicans want to defund organizations like Planned Parenthood as a way to prevent abortions, and Democrats won’t stand for it. According to Politico , Sen. Patty Murray had this to say on the potential shutdown:
I am really stunned. And I am angry as a woman that we have come to this after weeks of negotiating on numbers… that there are those in the Republican party in the House who are willing to shutdown the government, take people’s paychecks away from them because they want to deny women access to health care in this country.
Sen. Reid said that disputes over abortion rights have no place in a budget bill, and that congressmen “can’t solve in one night an issue that this country has been fighting over for four decades.” That Republicans are digging in their heels shouldn’t come as such a surprise to Reid and Murray-as Amanda pointed out last month , Speaker of the House John Boehner said that defunding Planned Parenthood was a top priority . Even though it’s not surprising, that doesn’t make the GOP’s anti-abortion funding crusade any less devastating.
