Americans might not always be big fans of the federal government, but they'd still prefer it stay running. And they don't think that funding for Planned Parenthood is a good enough excuse to shut it down.
A poll by CNN/ORC finds that 71 percent of Americans say it is more important for Congress to approve a budget to keep the government running than for it to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood. Congress must pass a funding bill by Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown similar to what took place two years ago, when Congressional Republicans provoked a shutdown over funding for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Only 22 percent said Congress' priority should be to strip federal funds from the organization. Another 5 percent said the two goals are equally important and 2 percent had no opinion.
The opposition to a government shutdown is even greater than two years ago, when 34 percent said that preventing the funding of the PPACA was more important than keeping the government running. Either Americans see Planned Parenthood as a less important issue or the previous government shutdown convinced them that it wasn't a productive exercise of political opposition.
Planned Parenthood has long been the target of anti-abortion legislators at the state and national level, who have sought to cut public funds that finance a variety of health and family planning services the group provides.
But a video that surfaced in July has provoked even greater controversy than usual about the group. The video featured an undercover anti-abortion activist, posing as a prospective buyer of fetal tissue, asking Planned Parenthood officials about ways to acquire tissue from aborted fetuses. Planned Parenthood has said the video is misleading, portraying the potential transactions as for-profit, which is illegal.
Although federal law prohibits the group from using federal funds for abortions, many anti-abortion activists reason that helping the organization pay for its other services allows it to devote its private resources to abortion.
Another question asked in the poll about the issue of abortion in general gives a glimpse of who is likely supportive of provoking a government shutdown over Planned Parenthood. Asked whether abortion should be legal under all circumstances, some circumstances or no circumstances, only 18 percent said it should never be legal –– only slightly lower than the percentage who believe killing Planned Parenthood funds is more important than keeping the government open. In contrast, 26 percent believe it should always be legal and 54 percent said it should be legal under some circumstances.
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