The San Diego Congressional delegation voted along party lines Friday to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The vote was 241 to 187, with Republicans Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issa voting to end funding, and Democrats Susan Davis, Scott Peters and Juan Vargas voting to preserve it.
The vote was spurred by recent revelations of secretly recorded videos of Planned Parenthood officials casually discussing how they sometimes sell tissue from aborted fetuses for medical research.
Peters said after the vote that it was a waste of time by Republicans.
“Roads are crumbling, bridges are falling down, and the United States is again faced with a government shutdown; instead of tackling these critical problems, Republicans in Congress would rather waste our time resurrecting a battle that was settled by the Supreme Court 40 years ago,” he said in a statement.
The Senate is likely to reject the House bill, and in any case President Obama would veto it, but the vote was in part designed to avoid an effort by Tea Party Republicans to shut down the government on Sept. 30.
Although Planned Parenthood is known for providing abortions, it also offers a wide range of other medical services for women, including breast cancer screenings, pap tests, and STI tests.
