Democrats Won’t Fight Zika Without More Abortions

Senate Democrats have again blocked a Zika funding bill in the latest episode of bitter partisan bickering as the mosquito-borne virus continues to sweep through Florida.

The bill, which came up for a final vote Tuesday, fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass it with a 52-46 result along party lines as the Democrats struck down a GOP-authored funding bill for the third consecutive time. The issues the Democrats simply couldn’t yield on pertained to the bill’s stripping of more than half a billion dollars sitting unspent in an Obamacare fund, as well as roughly $200 million from other unused federal funds. In addition, the Democrats took issue with the Republicans’ refusal to allow funds to be issued to Planned Parenthood, as specific language in the bill prohibits.

“My message to both parties and both chambers for this month is simple and straightforward: Zika is not a game,” Rubio said. “And if you think it is, then you should take your game somewhere else.”

“It’s hard to explain why — despite their own calls for funding — Senate Democrats decided to block a bill that could help keep pregnant women and babies safer from Zika,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor.

In retaliation, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid blamed the Republicans.

“Republicans were more interested in attacking Planned Parenthood and flying the Confederate flag — can’t make this stuff up, that’s really the truth — than protecting women and babies from this awful virus,” Reid said on the floor.

But the Democrats’ refusal to pass the $1.1 billion bill — as well as their readiness to pin the blame on Republicans for refusing to pass President Barack Obama’s initial $1.9 billion request — becomes hypocritical when the Democrats’ motives are further analyzed.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts gave a fiery speech on the Senate floor May 17 titled “Congress Must Act to Fund Zika Response,” in which she said that she would put national health and safety above political bickering.

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“For months, [the Democrats have] asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act while more and more American travelers are back in the U.S. after contracting the Zika virus. For months we’ve asked the Republicans who control the Senate to let us act while health experts at World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control have begged Congress for the resources to fight this disease,” Warren said. “If your ship is sinking and you need 12 life boats but you can only get six, you take the six. We will take whatever the Republicans who control the Senate are willing to give to protect the American people.”

But the Democrats’ set determination to make a stand upon their altar to Planned Parenthood and protecting Obama’s wasted funding does not compare favorably with other lawmakers’ genuine concerns for protecting their own constituents and other U.S. citizens.

“I’ve written letters, I’ve written laws, I’ve supported every single Zika proposal that has come before the Senate, regardless of which party wrote it,” Republican Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But tonight, for the third time, the minority party, the Democrats in the Senate, have blocked more funding to fight this virus. And I want to be frank, at times my own party has not taken the issue seriously enough either.”

“We are going to continue to see more explosive growth in infections if people keep conspiring, for political reasons in an election year, to do nothing,” Rubio continued. “My message to both parties and both chambers for this month is simple and straightforward: Zika is not a game. And if you think it is, then you should take your game somewhere else. This issue is about human beings, not political chess pieces, and we have a duty to solve it.”