After two undercover videos revealed that staff from Planned Parenthood were negotiating prices for fetal body parts, outrage on Capitol Hill is reaching a boiling point with Republican lawmakers demanding the leadership take action to defund the group.
According to The Hill, Tennessee Rep. Diane Black and 124 lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill to defund the group for one year while an investigation takes place, but House Speaker John Boehner wants to delay legislative action pending the probe.
"There is no excuse when you have evidence like this, it's time to move forward. It's not time to back off," Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp told The Hill. "I would be very disappointed if we gave in to the abortion industry in this."
"The idea that we would wait for an investigation," he added, shaking his head, according to The Hill. "Are we going to wait a Benghazi length of time? Are we going to wait a year and a half? Now's the time to actually bring the defunding bill up."
Huelskamp is one of a number of Republicans who have introduced a companion bill to Black's. He is headlining a D.C. rally against the group Tuesday, which will also host GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, The Hill reported.
The Center for Medical Progress, which shot the videos,
accuses Planned Parenthood of illegally profiting from abortions. Since releasing the videos, the center has said it has hundreds — possibly thousands — of hours of undercover footage that will be released in the weeks and months ahead.
Planned Parenthood insists it has been misrepresented in the editing of the videos and denies having broken the law.
"I would like to see us call a moratorium now, and frankly, I ultimately wanted Planned Parenthood defunded period," Texas GOP Rep. Kevin Brady told the Hill. "Certainly the videos are so disturbing and gruesome that calling a halt to the funding now would be very prudent and reasonable."
Brady said he believes defunding the group while conducting an investigation could "be done in parallel."
Meanwhile, presidential candidates and
Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ted Cruz of Texas have taken up the fight in the Senate, vowing to defund the group by tagging it on to pending legislation.
Planned Parenthood receives roughly $500 million from the federal government, according to The Hill.
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