Sen. Mitch McConnell gave the keynote speech at last year's National Right to Life convention in Louisville, Ky. He excited attendees with his pledge to defend the unborn once he took the Senate reins from Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). Well, a year later, and those pro-lifers are wondering what the heck happened. This weekend on Capitol Hill, McConnell rejected Republican senators' attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, even after the organization was exposed by an under cover investigation showing top abortionists nonchalantly discussing the sale of fetal body parts.
Here was McConnell in June 2014, criticizing Democrats and their shameful agenda of stymieing the efforts of the pro-life movement:
"For six years, the president has been isolated from this growing movement [...] He will be forced to listen to the cause that's brought us all here this morning [...] Senate Dems would be forced to take a stand."
Well, despite McConnell's contrast, not much has seemingly changed under his leadership. In what could have been a prime opportunity to defund Planned Parenthood as it is reeling from the poor publicity of the last two weeks, McConnell looked the other way. Instead of allowing the pro-life amendment to be added to the highway funding bill, he offered a different one anathema to the conservative cause: the reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.
Again, flashback to that pro-life convention:
"As long as I'm the senior senator from Kentucky, you can count on me."
McConnell, I have no doubt, is pro-life. He cosponsored the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act and last month assured pro-lifers the Senate would vote on it.
“A bill that protects life after 20 weeks in the womb, a bill that in the past couldn’t even get a hearing, I’ll promise you will be a getting a vote,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, said on Friday. “That’s not only good news for pro-lifers, it’s good news for our entire country.”
“It’s high time we did that because, I don’t know about you but I think we’re failing the country if the best thing we can offer to a scared, young mom-to-be is a referral to Planned Parenthood," said McConnell.
But, as his pro-life speech last year proves, it may be all rhetoric.
Oh and did you catch that? Yeah, that was a slam against Planned Parenthood. Let's hope he hasn't forgotten who he's fighting.
Final note: McConnell seems like he's trying to make amends by agreeing to "fast-track" a stand-alone defund Planned Parenthood bill. Sean Davis explains why that may yet again be just an empty gesture:
So what does his silly standalone PP defunding bill accomplish? Nothing. It won't pass. It needs 60. As an amdt it only needed a majority.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) July 26, 2015
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