Republican Congress plan to defund Planned Parenthood as part of repealing Affordable Care Act

The organisation provides abortions, women’s health services and birth control

Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (Getty)

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has said the House of Representatives will vote to defund Planned Parenthood as Republicans legislate to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Mr Ryan made the announcement after a House panel issued a report criticising the organisation, which provides abortions, women’s health services and birth control.

Last year’s Obamacare repeal measure also contained an attempt to defund Planned Parenthood and Dana Singiser, the organisation's vice-president for Public Policy, described the move as a “partisan attack”.

“Republican leaders are launching their crusade to take health care away from millions of people across America and increase health premiums for millions more.,” Ms Singiser said in a statement.

“The resolution introduced last night is the first step in the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act, which has helped make historic gains for access to health care.”

The defunding measure would take roughly $400m in funding away from the group which would result in approximately 400,000 women losing access to care, according to the Guardian.

President-elect Donald Trump sent mixed signals about Planned Parenthood during the election campaign.

He said “millions of women are helped by Planned Parenthood”, but also endorsed efforts to defund the group.