WASHINGTON (CNN) -- House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare.

Ryan made the announcement during a news conference on Capitol Hill.

Congressional Republicans have tried for years to zero out all federal funding for Planned Parenthood because the group provides abortion services. The issue helped trigger a 16-day government shutdown in 2013, and Democrats and President Barack Obama insisted any provision targeting the group be removed from a bill to fund federal agencies.

Another effort to defund the group will spur another high-profile clash and could be a tough vote for some moderate Republicans such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has opposed past efforts.

The vast majority of federal money that Planned Parenthood does receive funds preventive health care, birth control, pregnancy tests, breast cancer screening and other womens health care services. Democrats also point out that much of the money the group received is through the Medicaid program, which reimburses health care clinics that provide care to those covered by the federal program.

Under the "Hyde amendment" that is attached to annual funding bills, no federal money is allowed to go to programs that include abortion services, unless they are needed to preserve the life of the mother or are caused by rape.

Democrats immediately denounced the news that Republicans again were working to bar future federal funds for Planned Parenthood.

"This is a priority for the Republicans," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Thursday afternoon. "So I just would like to speak individually to women across America: this is about respect for you, for your judgment about your personal decisions in terms of your reproductive needs, the size and timing of your family or the rest, not to be determined by the insurance company or by the Republican ideological right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives. So this is a very important occasion where we're pointing out very specifically what repeal of the (Affordable Care Act) will mean to woman."

Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said "it's likely no accident that this attack was launched the day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a long-time opponent of Planned Parenthood, held a closed-door meeting with Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership." </s> House Speaker Paul Ryan made jaws drop when he announced on Jan. 5 that as part of their plan to dismantle Obamacare, Republicans will defund Planned Parenthood. Furious voters and celebs have taken to Twitter to give Paul a piece of their mind, vowing to stand with the vital organization. Check it out right here.

Paul Ryan, 46, has vowed to strip Planned Parenthood’s funding, and people everywhere are rightfully infuriated. If the Republicans succeed, health care will be cut off for millions of people who use their services in order to get cancer screenings and birth control, among other preventative services.

Obviously, women, men, celebrities and other politicians took to Twitter to express their outrage over Ryan’s announcement, using the hashtag #IStandWithPP. Take a look:

“Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care. Two and a half million women, men and young people come through our doors every year for lifesaving care like cancer screenings, birth control, and STI and STD tests, and they cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we’re going to be here for 100 more. Women and men in this country won’t let politicians like Paul Ryan and Mike Pence take us back decades. It’s likely no accident that this attack was launched the day after Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a long-time opponent of Planned Parenthood, held a closed-door meeting with Speaker Ryan and the Republican leadership. Now that their plan is clear, Planned Parenthood, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the one in five women who have come to Planned Parenthood, the entire public health establishment and the millions of supporters across the country are ready to defend care with everything we’ve got.”

HollywoodLifers, where do you stand on this? </s> Story highlights Republicans need the backing of at least 50 of their 52 members to repeal Obamacare

There are at least two pro-choice senators who caucus with the GOP

Washington (CNN) A push by Republican congressional leaders to defund Planned Parenthood could threaten passage of their top-priority legislation to repeal Obamacare because of opposition to the anti-abortion provision by two key GOP senators.

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare.

Congressional Republicans have tried for years to zero out all federal funding for Planned Parenthood because the group provides abortion services. The fight over Obamacare helped trigger a 16-day government shutdown in 2013, and Democrats and President Barack Obama insisted any Planned Parenthood provision targeting the group be removed from a bill to fund federal agencies.

The decision to add the controversial Planned Parenthood language, which is opposed by most Democrats, could have a major impact on getting the Affordable Care Act repeal legislation through the Senate because supporters need the backing of at least 50 of their 52 members and two pro-choice senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, won't commit to approving the bill with the Planned Parenthood provision in it.

Further complicating matters for Senate GOP leaders is Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who announced this week he plans to vote against the Obamacare repeal legislation because the underlying budget measure it is attached to doesn't balance and adds to the deficit. If Murkowski, Collins and Paul all voted against the budget bill, it would be enough to torpedo the Obamacare repeal legislation.

Read More </s> WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday Republicans would strip federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law, prompting an outcry from the century-old organization and Democrats promising to fight the move.

Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women’s health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker’s comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group.

“The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our (repeal) bill,” Ryan told reporters.

Last year’s Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account.

The defunding measure would take away roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. Republicans would redirect the funding to community health centers, but supporters of the organization say women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care.

“Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “They cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we’re going to be here for 100 more.”

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the organization. He said “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood,” but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as “very pro-choice,” but now opposes abortion rights.

“This election was not about taking away women’s opportunity to get basic, lifesaving health care,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., at a Capitol Hill news conference.

Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it’s a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans — 59 percent in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans.

The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member — Susan Collins of Maine — cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year’s elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass.

Conservatives won a close 2015 vote in the Senate on the issue but last year’s election results appear to have narrowed the margin. And Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., predicted Democrats could win this time around — especially since Republicans who may be uneasy about the idea can no longer count on a veto by President Barack Obama to dictate the outcome.

“This is now real,” Murray said. “So members of Congress in the Senate and in the House will not be able to hide.”

Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made. </s> Republicans will move to defund Planned Parenthood as part of a process to dismantle Obamacare, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday.

Cutting off federal funds to the organization will be included in Congressional Republicans’ “reconciliation” budget bill, which was first introduced Tuesday and essentially prevents Democrats from using a Senate filibuster to protect President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul, according to The Hill.

“Planned Parenthood legislation will be in our reconciliation bill,” Ryan said.

Ryan said in a separate statement that the Affordable Care Act is a “failed law” that is “hurting people right now.”

Planned Parenthood called the Republicans’ move a “crusade” against Americans. Dana Singiser, the organization’s vice president for government relations and public policy, said in a statement that 55 million women who now have access to things like birth control would be affected by the change.

“Americans across the political spectrum don’t want these dangerous and backward policies. The public believes it is wrong to tear apart their health care without knowing what the replacement plan is to keep their families healthy and financially secure,” Singiser said. </s> House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday Republicans would strip federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law, prompting an outcry from the century-old organization and Democrats.

Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women’s health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. The Wisconsin lawmaker’s comments, while expected, were the first official word that repeal legislation would also renew the congressional assault on the group.

“The Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our (repeal) bill,” Ryan said.

Last year’s Obamacare repeal measure also contained the effort to defund the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health services to low-income women. It also receives reimbursements for contraception services from a different government account.

The defunding measure would take away roughly $400 million in Medicaid money from the group in the year after enactment, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and would result in roughly 400,000 women losing access to care. One factor is that being enrolled in Medicaid doesn’t guarantee access to a doctor, so women denied Medicaid services from Planned Parenthood may not be able to find replacement care.

“Defunding Planned Parenthood is dangerous to people’s health, it’s unpopular, and it would leave people across the country without care,” said Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. “They cannot afford to have basic reproductive health care attacked. Planned Parenthood has been here for 100 years and we’re going to be here for 100 more.”

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals during the campaign about the organization. He said “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood,” but he also endorsed efforts to defund the group. Trump once described himself as “very pro-choice,” but now opposes abortion rights.

Cutting off Planned Parenthood from taxpayer money is a long-sought dream of social conservatives, but it’s a loser in the minds of some GOP strategists. Planned Parenthood is loathed by anti-abortion activists who are the backbone of the GOP coalition. Polls, however, show that the group is favorably viewed by a sizable majority of Americans — 59 percent in a Gallup survey last year, including more than one-third of Republicans.

The defunding effort could also complicate Obamacare repeal in the Senate, where at least one GOP member — Susan Collins of Maine — cited the defunding language in opposing the repeal effort in late 2015. Last year’s elections thinned Republican ranks in the Senate to 52, so only a handful of GOP defections are possible if the repeal measure is going to pass.

Asked Wednesday about party efforts to tie the effort to defund Planned Parenthood to Obamacare repeal, Collins said, “that’s of concern to me as well, but I don’t want to prejudge what’s in the … bill.”

Most GOP lawmakers have long opposed Planned Parenthood because many of its clinics provide abortions. Their antagonism intensified after anti-abortion activists released secretly recorded videos in 2015 showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing how they sometimes provide fetal tissue to researchers, which is legal if no profit is made.

A supporter of the defunding effort said it may not have much of an effect on the number of abortions performed in the country, but that federal dollars to Planned Parenthood indirectly support abortion.

“A lot of the ongoing support in the structural finances for Planned Parenthood goes to build the buildings, the infrastructure that provides abortion,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla. </s> House Speaker Paul Ryan says upcoming legislation to repeal the health care law would cut off taxpayer money to Planned Parenthood.

The Wisconsin Republican spoke after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization over providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. Planned Parenthood provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services.

A similar bill last year also would have "defunded" the group, which receives government reimbursements from the Medicaid program for non-abortion health care for low-income women.

The defunding effort is a top priority of anti-abortion lawmakers but could complicate "Obamacare" repeal in the Senate, where at least one Republican senator has opposed the repeal. Susan Collins of Maine cited the effort to "defund" Planned Parenthood in her opposition to repeal. </s> WASHINGTON ― With so much attention on GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare this month, there’s a detail to their plan that may slip under the radar: Their bill will strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, too.

“Planned Parenthood legislation would be in our reconciliation bill,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said during a Thursday press conference, referring to the process Republicans are using to pass an Obamacare repeal bill with a simple majority of votes instead of a supermajority, which means Democrats can’t filibuster it in the Senate.

The bill still has to pass the House and Senate, and because the reconciliation process allows for unlimited amendments, Democrats can try to tie it up.

Republicans have routinely voted to defund Planned Parenthood over the years, but with President Barack Obama in the White House, their bills never had a chance of becoming law. That could change under President-elect Donald Trump.

Some Republicans argue the women’s health care provider shouldn’t get any federal money because it provides abortion services. But it’s a misleading claim: The federal Hyde Amendment already bans federal dollars for abortions, except in very restricted cases. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s services involve testing for and treating sexually transmitted diseases, providing birth control, screening for breast cancer and offering other women’s health care.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she’s not surprised the GOP is going after women’s reproductive rights as part of its Obamacare repeal.

“This is a priority for the Republicans,” Pelosi said in a Thursday news conference. “So I just would like to speak individually to women across America: This is about respect for you, for your judgment about your personal decisions in terms of your reproductive needs, the size and timing of your family, and the rest, not to be determined by the insurance company or by the Republican, ideological, right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives.

“This is a very important occasion where we’re pointing out very specifically what repeal of [the Affordable Care Act] would mean to woman,” Pelosi added.

Planned Parenthood gets most of its federal funding through Medicaid, which helps low-income women. That’s what Republicans would be cutting. The health care provider does get some Medicaid money in states, though, and could keep doing so regardless of what Congress does. </s> House Speaker Paul Ryan, accompanied by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday to discuss efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act. (Photo: AP)

Washington: The US House of Representatives has joined the Senate in passing a critical measure that marks the first major step toward repealing outgoing President Barack Obama's landmark but controversial health care reforms.

The House's near party-line vote of 227 to 198 approved a budget blueprint which provides Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, with a framework for dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

But one week before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a sense of urgency has swept over Washington about what his party will put forward as a replacement for the law, with Democrats warning of disastrous consequences should Republicans act too hastily.

"This resolution essentially fires the starting pistol...for repealing Obamacare," said Representative Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican.

"This is a critical first step to deliver relief to Americans struggling under this law," House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow members, describing as a "rescue mission" the latest effort to unwind Obamacare.

"This experiment has failed," and "we have to step in before things get worse."

The Senate passed the resolution Thursday. It received no Democratic support in either chamber, highlighting the intensely partisan fight that lies ahead.

The resolution provides Republicans with a powerful tool, called reconciliation, which allows repeal legislation to proceed through the 100-member Senate with a simple majority, protected from a Democratic filibuster that requires a 60-vote threshold to overcome.

Trump made repeal of the law a central plank of his insurgent campaign, and he sounded triumphant ahead of the vote.

"The 'Unaffordable' Care Act will soon be history!" he tweeted early on Friday.

Days earlier he said the Republicans ought to repeal and replace Obamacare quickly and "simultaneously."

During a Thursday town hall style event Ryan said he was on board, and that he envisioned action on a plan "within the first hundred days."

Unwinding Obamacare will be a monumental task. Republican leadership is moving carefully, stressing it does not want to "pull the rug out from anyone" who might lose coverage if there is no replacement plan on offer.
Paul Ryan announces that the Republican party will, as part of its efforts to repeal Obamacare, seek to stop using federal money to fund Planned Parenthood.