The initial efforts to shut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood failed in the U.S. Senate Monday afternoon.
Alaska’s U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan both voted for further debate of a bill to defund the organization.
The attempt was seven votes shy(53-46) of gaining the 60 votes needed to pass the bill.
Monday’s vote followed the recent release of secretly recorded videos by an anti-abortion group showing Planned Parenthood officials describing how they sometimes provide aborted fetal tissue for researchers.
Opponents of the group say the video shows that the organization illegally profits from selling the organs.
Planned Parenthood maintains it breaks no laws and recovers the procedures’ costs legally.
Democrats reasoned that this bill is the GOP’s latest attack on women’s health care.
The White House has guaranteed to veto any legislation that would end funding for the women’s health organization.
Conservatives in the House and Senate have vowed to block the passage of 2016 spending bills unless the federal funding for Planned Parenthood is halted.
