“I grant them their position on abortion and the rest of that. But contraception? … Really?” Pelosi said on Wednesday. “We’re talking about mosquitoes, but do we need to talk about the birds and the bees at the same time?”
Vice President Joe Biden said much of the same on the steps of Capitol Hill. If Congress "cares about babies," he insisted, they will make sure the Zika bill includes money for Planned Parenthood. Unborn children will be "fundamentally compromised" by the virus, he said, reminding them that Zika can often cause microcephaly.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, however, knows the blame is all the Democrats. No way is the House going to succumb to pressure to appease an abortion giant.
"First of all, there's no Planned Parenthood [provision] in this bill, and to put an earmark for Planned Parenthood is something that we won't do," Ryan said at his weekly briefing.