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The Senate’s top Republican is conceding that his party will have to await the next president before it can cut off federal funds that go to Planned Parenthood, prompting heated rebuffs from conservatives. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says Republicans lack the votes to halt the payments. He also says that standing in the GOP’s way is President Barack Obama, who doesn’t leave office until January 2017. (Fram, 9/1)

"We just don't have the votes to get the outcome that we'd like," McConnell said in an interview taped Monday with WYMT-TV, which serves eastern Kentucky. "I would remind all of your viewers, the way you make a law in this country, the Congress has to pass it, and the president has to sign it. The president's made it very clear he's not going to sign any bill that includes defunding of Planned Parenthood so that's another issue that awaits a new president hopefully with a different point of view." (DeBonis, 9/1)

Defunding Planned Parenthood has become a leading cause among some Republicans in the wake of controversial undercover videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the price of fetal tissue for medical research. Planned Parenthood, while apologizing for the tone, denies any wrongdoing, saying officials are discussing legal compensation for expenses and pointing to an analysis that the videos are heavily edited. McConnell said that the Senate would vote again on defunding Planned Parenthood after a failed Senate vote last month, but he said that the votes are not there. (Sullivan, 9/1)

Republicans have threatened to push for cutting off the group's federal support, perhaps tying that demand to several must-pass tax-and-spending measures set to come before Congress after its August vacation. Lawmakers will return to Washington on Sept. 8. Left unresolved, failure to pass those bills could push them to the brink of shutdown by as early as Oct. 1 (Heavey, 9/1)

A government shutdown wouldn’t shut down Planned Parenthood. Instead, Planned Parenthood would continue to receive the majority of its federal funding — including all of its Medicaid payments — even if Congress cannot enact a new spending law on Oct. 1, according to a nonpartisan study by the Congressional Research Service, obtained by POLITICO. In addition to that federal funding, most of Planned Parenthood’s financial backing comes from outside the government, making it easier for the organization to weather a government shutdown. (Everett and Haberkorn, 9/1)

An anti-abortion group is releasing Web ads targeting four pivotal swing votes ahead of an expected Senate vote to ban abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy. Susan B. Anthony List is running ads in Pennsylvania, Indiana, North Dakota and Alaska to target Democratic Sens. Bob Casey, Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp, and Republican Lisa Murkowski, respectively. (Haberkorn, 9/1)

Abortion opponents on Tuesday released their ninth Planned Parenthood sting video, this time capturing a tissue procurement company executive talking about rare circumstances in which an abortion has resulted in an intact fetus. The video from the Center for Medical Progress features Perrin Larton, procurement manager at Advanced BioScience Resources, which has worked with a Planned Parenthood clinic in California and provides fetal tissue to researchers with government funding. (9/1)

One month ago, six Planned Parenthood clinics allowed women to donate aborted fetus tissue for medical research. Now, there are just two that do — a sign that the future of the programs could be in serious jeopardy. Planned Parenthood has fiercely defended its fetal tissue donations in the face of attacks from an anti-abortion rights organization this summer. But the steady stream of undercover videos of the organization’s operations is taking a toll on its affiliates and partners. (Ferris, 9/2)