Abortion politics took center stage during a debate on the state budget bill Thursday, when Rep. Patrick Neville, a Parker Republican, tried to add an amendment to the bill to block Colorado’s public colleges and universities from using their state dollars to fund activities related to the sale of fetal tissue.
The amendment brought back last year’s national fight over fetal-tissue sales, which are illegal under federal law. That issue became prominent after David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress videotaped conversations with Planned Parenthood representatives and creatively edited them to falsely allege the organization was selling fetal tissue.
Daleiden and an associate have since been indicted in Texas for using false IDs related to the videos.
Almost a dozen states dug into those claims against Planned Parenthood and found they had no merit.
Both Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment rejected Republican requests for similar investigations here.
The claims that Planned Parenthood was selling “baby parts” may have prompted Robert Lewis Dear Jr. to attack a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic last November, killing three and injuring nine others. Dear reportedly said “no more baby parts” to an investigator after the shooting.
Neville’s amendment, co-sponsored with fellow Republican Rep. Kim Ransom of Littleton, was ruled out of order because it would attempt to create a new state law through the budget bill, which would violate state law.
Neville, irritated his amendment was ruled out of order, asked that the budget bill, all 581 pages, be read at length. He told the reporters he was playing a political game with the Dems.
Democrats responded by putting up a dozen staff members to read the budget bill simultaneously. That’s the same tactic Republicans took in 2003 during the infamous “midnight gerrymander,” when Republicans rammed through a redistricting bill in the last three days of the session and were asked by angry Democrats to read the measure at length.
The 2003 reading took hours, because they read not only the bill but the physical description of every congressional district.
Neville halted the reading of the budget bill after about 20 minutes — a merciful early end to his stunt.
Opposing the murder of children is not a “stunt”.
more proof that republicans cannot and will not govern in the Name of the People….
He is a sick man using what has been proven to be a criminal lie leading to the murder of three people in Colorado Springs to further his myopic and dangerous views of women’s health issues, and cost Colorado tax payers and citizens money by wasting time with his childish behavior. He could work on so many positive actions, such as community outreach projects for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, meaningful sex education programs for our youth, and resources for health screenings and programs, especially for the young underprivileged, under-served women in our state. He could choose to be a leader in causes for preventative health measures, which saves us all money and above all, creates a better standard of living, both mentally and physically, for all of our mothers, sisters, daughters, friends and wives, instead of being a negative, pouting little boy, who appears to make it all about himself.