Planned Parenthood sees brief reprieve after healthcare bill yanked

By Jonathan Allen and Jilian Mincer

NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood, the national health organization that would have lost federal funding under sweeping healthcare overhaul legislation, views the withdrawal of the bill on Friday as a temporary reprieve, not the end of a threat to its existence.

Officials of the organization - long a target of those who oppose its abortion services - anticipate further attempts by Republicans to curb its participation in federally funded public health programs, a major source of its funding.

In a major setback for Republican President Donald Trump, U.S. House of Representatives leaders pulled the healthcare bill after a rebellion by Republican moderates and the party's most conservative lawmakers left them short of votes. Democrats were unified against it.

Planned Parenthood leaders will meet in Washington next week to plan their strategy for coming rounds in what they see as a protracted fight.

"It's one good night's sleep, and then we have to see what they are going to cook up," Chris Charbonneau, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, said in a phone interview. "They're trying to find some vehicle that they could hook some Planned Parenthood defund(ing) to."

Many Republicans oppose the organization, some on religious grounds, because its healthcare services include abortions, although it receives no federal funding or reimbursement for abortions, as stipulated by federal law.

The federal funding it receives is primarily through reimbursement via Medicaid and the Title X Family Planning grant program for its care for low-income patients.

Abortion opponents said Republican leaders had promised for years to end federal reimbursement for Planned Parenthood, and that voters would continue to hold them to this. Before winning the presidential election in November, Trump had also promised to defund Planned Parenthood, and fought to get the healthcare bill passed.

"I'm confident the Republicans in Congress and the president will move ahead and defund Planned Parenthood," said Joe Pojman, executive director of the anti-abortion Texas Alliance for Life.

The issue "is so dear to the electorate who put the Republicans and president in office," he said after the bill was pulled.

On the other side of the issue, Georges Benjamin, the American Public Health Association's executive director, welcomed the withdrawal of the legislation, and said the renewed public attention on Planned Parenthood may make future efforts to limit its funding more difficult.