Planned Parenthood Decries Removal of Family Planning Provision from House Stimulus Package

Politico: Planned Parenthood v. Obama, by Josh Gerstein:

President Obama’s only been in office for eight days and some of his friends are already steaming mad at him.

The president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Cecile Richards, just sent an “urgent” email to supporters decrying Obama’s decision to jettison a family planning provision from the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus package to be voted on in the House Wednesday.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs confirmed Tuesday that Obama called House Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) and asked him to drop the provision. The president “believed that the policy of increased funding for family planning was the right one.... He didn’t believe that this bill was the vehicle to make that happen,” Gibbs said.

“I’m stunned,” Richards wrote in the e-mail. “Removing this provision is a betrayal of millions of low-income women, and it will place an even greater burden on state budgets that are already strained to the breaking point.”