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Videos of Planned Parenthood staffers discussing how they gather fetal tissue during abortions for use in medical research are stirring antiabortion activists’ hopes of converting the controversy into a ban on federal funding for the organization. Cutting off federal funds for Planned Parenthood has emerged as one of the short-term moves that activists believe is most achievable in the wake of the release of two videos in the past two weeks. (Radnofsky and Peterson, 7/23)

In the wake of the release this week of another undercover video of Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for a Department of Justice investigation — but that’s where any bipartisan agreement ends. Republicans want Attorney General Loretta Lynch to probe whether the nation’s largest provider of abortions is illegally harvesting and selling fetal organs and tissue, while Democrats want the Justice Department to look at whether the anti-abortion activists behind the videos went too far with their secretive recordings. (Khurshid, 7/23)

At least eight Republican-led states are starting investigations or trying to stop funding Planned Parenthood — and they may be able to get results more easily than the outraged Republicans in Congress or on the GOP presidential campaign trail. The red states may be better placed to slash funds than Congress, where Senate Democrats can likely block GOP efforts to defund the organization, which gets millions in state and federal financing each year for providing health care services ranging from breast cancer screening to birth control, often for low-income women. (Haberkorn, 7/24)

Hillary Clinton on Thursday came out in defense of Planned Parenthood for the first time since the organization got swept up in a scandal involving videos that allege it sells fetal tissue. “Planned Parenthood has apologized for the insensitivity of the employee who was taped, and they will continue to answer questions for Congress and others,” Clinton said during a campaign stop in South Carolina. (Karni, 7/23)

Hillary Rodham Clinton praised South Carolina leaders for removing the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds but said the country must "dig deeper" against racial injustice. Separately, she defended Planned Parenthood against attacks from her Republican counterparts who are using an edited video to accuse the women's health care and abortion provider of profiting from the sale of fetal tissue to researchers. She accused Republicans of a "concerted effort" to undermine a woman's constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. (Barrow, 7/23)