House OKs GOP bill blocking Planned Parenthood payments

WASHINGTON — Seeking to avert a government shutdown, Republican leaders drove a bill blocking Planned Parenthood’s federal funds through the House on Friday, hoping to contain conservatives’ demands for a politically risky showdown with President Obama by striking a quick blow against abortion.

The nearly party-line 241-187 vote followed a no-holds-barred debate that included a graphic, poster-size photo of a scarred, aborted fetus and underscored how abortion has resurfaced as a white-hot political issue.

The issue’s re-emergence followed the release of secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials offhandedly discussing how they sometimes procure tissue from aborted fetuses for medical research.

[...] Democrats said the true GOP goal was to whip up conservative voters with legislation that would make it harder for women to get health care.