The Senate voted today to overturn an Obama-era HHS rule which directs state family planning funds to Planned Parenthood, moving one step closer to cutting off the abortion giant’s considerable taxpayer funding.

Senate Democrats spent their allotted five hours of debate using their typical rhetoric, describing all the “good work” that Planned Parenthood does and listing all the valuable services they offer besides abortion — completely ignoring the fact that in each state there exist dozens of community health centers that offer all of these same services.

Nevertheless, the resolution passed by a 51-50 vote, with Republican Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joining every Senate Democrat in voting ‘no.’ Vice President Mike Pence, who is staunchly pro-life, cast the tie-breaking vote.

The passage of this resolution is a huge victory for both states’ rights as well as pro-life Americans who don’t want their tax dollars supporting an organization which performs upwards of 300,000 abortions every year.

Even more importantly, however, the outcome of today’s vote also suggests a reconciliation bill defunding Planned Parenthood could also garner enough support to get through the Senate. While pro-life leaders have been calling on Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republicans to introduce such a bill in the wake of last Friday’s health care bill failure, it is unclear yet whether they will do so.

Photo credit: American Life League via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0