Sen. Lankford Hopes Pope Will Discuss Planned Parenthood Funding

Thursday marks the second full day of the Pope's visit to the U.S. After meeting with the President on Wednesday, he will address Congress on Thursday.

Climate Change, creating an open dialogue and immigration are all topics he's expected to touch on in front of Congress. But one topic looms, Planned Parenthood.

We spoke with Oklahoma Senator James Lankford and he hopes the Pope addresses views on abortion. If he does, it comes while most republicans are trying to defund Planned Parenthood, which is in response to the secretly-recorded videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetus tissue.

Threats to shut down the government over the funding have now come up, which is something Senator Lankford said he does not want to do.

"This is about how you protect children and I’ve yet to have anyone explain to me how, if you shut down the government, how that protects more children. Every life group I’ve talked to wants to keep the focus on children and not the focus on a government shut down, and so the focus really needs to be on protecting children and what are the best ways to get that done," said Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma (R)

In response to the threat of shut down, the white house has said, “That is a game of chicken with our economy that we cannot play.”