Using the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to repeal recently minted regulations, senators killed a rule meant to keep federal grants flowing to clinics that provide contraception and other services in states that want to block the funding.
US President Donald Trump has signed a new measure aimed at rolling back federal funding for the US women's health group Planned Parenthood.
It is worth noting that abortion is only about 3 percent of the services Planned Parenthood provides on a yearly basis.
"This puts an end to the outgoing gift that Obama gave the Trump administration which was to disallow states from being in charge of its own family planning funds", said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B Anthony's List. "Title X-funded clinics play a vital role in our health care system, with over four million women receiving family planning and preventive care at these clinics each year".
"Whether our elected leaders take action publicly or privately to restrict women's health care and attack their reproductive rights, it is unacceptable and unsafe", said Karen Middleton, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado.
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Yvonne Gutierrez, executive director for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, said she thinks Trump and Congress are having "a beating of the chest moment" after failing to repeal Obama's signature federal health law.
Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards argues community health centers don't have the resources to take on all of the patients Planned Parenthood sees. The publication later noted that "since Title X money is distributed through grants to states, they have the power to set criteria for recipients". Too many women still face barriers to health care, especially young women, women of color, those who live in rural areas, and women with low incomes.
Vice President Mike Pence had all but sealed the deal on March 30, when he cast the deciding vote both in a procedural vote and in the final vote landing the bill on Trump's desk.
Information for this article was contributed by Darlene Superville of The Associated Press; by Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post; and by Julie Hirschfeld Davis of The New York Times.
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