Some House conservatives have informed Senate leadership they will not support a healthcare bill that includes funding for Planned Parenthood.

Fox News reports that “several” GOP senators may be willing to back a healthcare bill that funds Planned Parenthood. No senators were identified, but if a Republican-backed measure includes funding for Planned Parenthood, it would be counter to the House-approved American Health Care Act which temporarily defunds Planned Parenthood.

“That’s very concerning to me and a number of other pro-life conservative members in the House who worked hard to implement a number of strong pro-life protections in the American Health Care Act, including a one-year defunding of public funding to Planned Parenthood,” says Congressman Jim Banks (R-Indiana).

“If those provisions are stripped out,” Banks continues, “it would make it very difficult for conservative members in the House of Representatives to vote for a bill that comes back from the Senate that would do that – [and] that’s why many of us are expressing our concerns to the Senate leadership that if they do that, that would make it harder to ultimately pass this bill and get it to the president’s desk.”

While Banks couldn’t confirm the report from Fox News, he points to a letter written by Congressman Doug Lamborn (R-Colorado) asking that pro-life priorities be included in a Senate healthcare bill.

Banks

“A number of us have signed onto the letter to express our disappointment if they would move in a direction like that,” says Banks. “It’s important that the pro-life provisions remain in the bill, including the full defunding of public funding going to Planned Parenthood.”

In all, 70 members of the U.S. House have signed Lamborn’s letter, among them GOP Representatives Mark Meadows (North Carolina), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee) and Louie Gohmert (Texas).