Portman wants to end aid to Planned Parenthood but opposes fed shutdown

WASHINGTON, D.C. — While U.S. Sen. Rob Portman wants to defund Planned Parenthood, he “doesn’t support government shutdowns and thinks we can avoid that,” a spokeswoman said.

Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area, voted Thursday to defund Planned Parenthood, which failed to capture a majority in the Senate.

Defunding Planned Parenthood is part of a government spending bill that must be approved next week to avoid an Oct. 1 shutdown.

“Rob will continue to be strongly supportive of defunding Planned Parenthood and voted to do so while also keeping the government open,” said Christyn Lansing, a Portman spokesman. “He also doesn’t support government shutdowns and thinks we can avoid that. In fact, he authored the End Government Shutdowns Act which would stop the threat of a shutdown by automatically renewing spending and also save taxpayer dollars by gradually trimming spending levels in order to bring both sides to the bargaining table.”