Emergency money to block the spread of the Zika virus won't be coming any time real soon. A $1.1 billion measure failed to win support for a vote in the Senate.
The major stumbling point was strings that were attached to the measure as it relates to combating the virus in Puerto Rico.
After the House passed the bill on a largely party-line vote, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., berated it.
"The House Zika bill is a disaster," Nelson said June 24. "[I]t limits access to birth control services needed to help curb the spread of the virus and prevent terrible birth defects." We wondered about Nelson's claim.
The language in the bill that limited how money could be spent said the dollars in question were "for health services provided by public health departments, hospitals, or reimbursed through public health plans."
Helen Hare, spokeswoman for the Democrats, told us this language cut out Profamilias, the Puerto Rican branch of Planned Parenthood.
This is about more than abortion services, Democrats say.
Zika can be transmitted through sex. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says condoms can reduce the chance of getting Zika. Hare said Profamilias served 8,000 people in 2015.

