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Days after a gunman killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said that Republicans were not planning to force a showdown with the White House over cutting federal financing to the group as many conservative lawmakers had been demanding just a few weeks ago. “I do not hear people shutting the government down over it right now, so that’s the bottom line,” Mr. McCarthy said at a news conference at the Capitol on Monday, where he was pressed about whether a measure cutting off Planned Parenthood’s funding would be attached to a must-pass spending measure later this month. (Herszenhorn, 11/30)

The California Republican’s comments suggested that party members won’t make defunding Planned Parenthood their primary focus in the negotiations over the spending bill. “Security is becoming the top issue I’m hearing [from lawmakers], especially in the last couple of weeks,” Mr. McCarthy said, when asked whether lawmakers were pushing to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding. Mr. Ryan has been reluctant to rule out the possibility of a shutdown, saying that doing so would diminish Republicans’ bargaining power in negotiations over the bill. But Mr. McCarthy said he expects Congress would pass the spending bill by Dec. 11 or in the following week. (Peterson, 11/30)

Republican congressional leader on Monday defended a House investigation of Planned Parenthood's provision of fetal tissue to researchers, offering no suggestion that last week's shooting deaths at one of the group's clinics will cause the GOP to retreat from that probe. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) also indicated that the Republican-run Congress will not risk a government shutdown fight with President Obama over GOP efforts to halt federal funding for the organization, which provides abortions and other health services to women. (Fram, 12/1)

Friday's shooting deaths of three people at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado, and a series of arson incidents in recent months — including one in the Los Angeles area — have prompted California’s senators to urge colleagues to tone down partisan rhetoric on Planned Parenthood. “Doctors, nurses and patients shouldn’t be terrorized or threatened. The poisonous rhetoric must stop,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) tweeted Monday. (Wire, 11/30)

The shootings at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs, Colo., over the holiday have put the debate over the women's health services and abortion provider back in the news. And already, left and right are arguing in very heated terms over the shooter reportedly saying "no more baby parts" while discussing his motives. (Phillips, 11/30)

Officially, the motive of alleged Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear remains unclear. ... But abortion rights advocates and opponents have quickly formed vastly different theories based on their own hand-picked media reports. On one side, Dear is basically what you’d imagine an abortion clinic attacker to be — an antiabortion activist. On the other, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) put it Sunday, Dear might be a "transgendered leftist activist." Cruz's campaign later said he was not making this allegation himself, but simply pointing out that there are conflicting reports — including some that Dear was registered to vote as a woman. (Borchers, 11/30)

The man accused of killing three people and wounding numerous others at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., said little in his first court appearance Monday. Robert Lewis Dear, 57 years old, who allegedly opened fire at the clinic on Friday before surrendering to police after a lengthy standoff, appeared via a video feed in a courtroom in Colorado’s El Paso County. (Frosch, 11/30)