The battle over funding for Planned Parenthood intensified yesterday as the White House vowed to veto any GOP sponsored defunding bill and called the videos showing PP executives negotiating the sale of fetal body parts "fraudulent."

Washington Times:

Senators will vote early next week on a bill to defund the organization, though that’s likely to fail. But some Republicans are already vowing to try to use the annual spending deadline of Sept. 30 to force the issue, saying they won’t vote for any spending bills that include money forPlanned Parenthood.

Congressional Democrats said they’ll block any bills that remove money for the organization, and with the White House rising to defend Planned Parenthood, the stalemate could result in another showdown similar to the 2013 fight over Obamacare that left the government shuttered for more than two weeks.

“Democrats will unite against it. This is a Republican path to shutdown,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, insisting the GOP will bear the blame.

The series of undercover videos has catapulted Planned Parenthood back to the top of the news, with a fourth video Thursday from the Center for Medical Progress showing Dr. Savita Ginde, who was medical director of a Planned Parenthood branch in Denver.

The group says Planned Parenthood is violating the law by selling aborted fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing, and the White House rose to its defense Thursday with press secretary Josh Earnest calling the videos misleading because they were likely heavily edited.

“There’s ample reason to think that this is merely the tried-and-true tactic that we have seen from extremists on the right to edit this video and selectively release an edited version of the video that grossly distorts the position of the person who is actually speaking,” he said.

He added, “Based on the essentially fraudulent way in which these videos have been released, there’s not a lot of evidence right now that Planned Parenthood hasn’t lived up to” its ethical standards.

White House officials stopped short of saying Mr. Obama would veto a measure to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding, but Mr. Earnestsaid the president won’t allow such a move.

“It’s an effort that we oppose,” he said. “I know there has been an effort on the part of some Republicans to try to play politics with some selectively edited videos. This is a tactic we have seen used before.”

Right now, I'd say there's a 75% chance of a government shut down. I'd lay the same odds that the GOP leadership will cave in and end up funding Planned Parenthood. The reason is simple; Republicans always get blamed in the end and with the election less than a year away, the GOP will run scared. Despite the fact that it will be Democrats obstructing the will of the majority in Congress, it will be the GOP who will be portrayed as the obstructionists. You can't change Mother Nature or the nature of media bias in the United States. It's a reality Republicans have learned to live with.