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Some female Republican and centrist lawmakers helped scuttle a vote on a controversial measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, prompting the House on Thursday to pass a separate, largely symbolic bill that would further restrict federal funding to pay for abortions. The last-minute scramble laid bare a rift within the Republican Party and highlighted its delicate relationship with an issue that ties the GOP to social conservatives. Republicans want to show their commitment to curbing abortions without turning off women voters who hold mixed views on the procedure. (Peterson and Radnofsky, 1/22)

President Barack Obama lashed out at House passage Thursday of a bill that would permanently prohibit taxpayer funding for abortion. The House easily passed it after GOP leaders had to cancel a vote on another bill that would have banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which got caught up in a fight about exemptions for rape victims. (Villacorta, 1/22)

About two dozen Republicans, led mostly by a small group of female lawmakers, forced the House leadership to pull an antiabortion bill from consideration and replace it with a less restrictive measure Thursday. The episode exposed a growing concern within the GOP that emphasizing culture-war issues in the new Congress could distract from the party’s broader agenda and upend hopes of retaking the White House. (O'Keefe, 1/22)

After spending the last few years butting heads with his most conservative members, House Speaker John A. Boehner has a new headache: a revolt by moderates. Tired of staying quiet while tea-party-minded conservatives pull the Republican majority further to the right, more temperate voices are starting to rise in the new GOP-led Congress. (Mascaro, 1/22)

John Boehner has a new balancing act: Handling the moderate backbencher resurgence. In years past, it was just the far right that dragged Boehner by the hair. But the political pendulum has swung closer to the center, and now, everyday members of the House Republican Conference are regaining their voice and willing to criticize their leadership for catering almost exclusively to conservatives. (Sherman and Bresnahan, 1/22)

With the GOP in control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans in the House were poised to pass a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to try to advance it in the Senate. The bill is an outright challenge to Roe v. Wade, decided exactly 42 years ago. Instead, House leaders had to cancel the vote after objections from some female Republicans who deemed a rape exemption unacceptably narrow and burdensome. (Wheaton, 1/22)

With legislative drama about abortion literally unfolding behind them at the U.S. Capitol, tens of thousands of abortion opponents held an upbeat rally Thursday to emphasize participants’ belief that U.S. culture is turning in their favor. As has become standard in recent years, the March for Life participants were overwhelmingly young and religious, with busloads of students who had come from across the country giving the Mall the feeling of a pop concert. (Boorstein, 1/22)

President Obama marked the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade with a statement praising the pivotal abortion rights ruling. The 1973 decision "protects a woman's freedom to make her own choices about her body and her health, and reaffirms a fundamental American value: that government should not intrude in our most private and personal family matters," Obama said. (Jackson, 1/22)

House Republicans decided Wednesday night to shelve a bill that would have banned abortion at 20 weeks post-conception. But 10 states already ban abortions at 20 weeks and two others are defending such laws in court. Activists are pushing for bans in at least three more states; a panel in the South Carolina Legislature passed one Thursday. (Ludden, 1/22)