This week’s vote to override President Obama’s veto of a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act and a partial defunding of Planned Parenthood may fail — but one of the House’s top Republicans and an influential conservative policy group told The Stream it sets the stage for future successes.

“As a proudly pro-life Christian, it is my goal to defend life, and fight for policies that strengthen families and promote a culture of life,” said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-LA. “In doing that, it is important to put pro-life legislation on the president’s desk, which is why I brought forward the plan to use budget reconciliation to defund Planned Parenthood.”

“President Obama’s veto of that bill shows Americans that the only missing ingredient in this fight is a President who shares our values of defending innocent human life,” Scalise said, echoing comments from SBA List president Marjorie Dannenfelser and other pro-life leaders who are urging Americans to send a pro-life President to the White House in 2017.

After the Senate passed the combination defunding/repeal measure in December, Dannenfelser said that “the debate over the reconciliation process has continued the national conversation on Planned Parenthood and established an important precedent for the next administration.”

Reconciliation is a legislative process that allows a Senate majority to avoid the 60-vote margin normally required to pass legislation. It can only be done under limited circumstances, and requires 51 votes.

In addition to shifting at least 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding to federally qualified health centers that do not conduct abortions, the bill repeals federal authority to run health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It also eliminates subsidies for people to purchase plans under the exchanges, and gets rid of mandates that require people and businesses to pay penalties if they do not purchase or offer health insurance, respectively.

In an unusual set of legislative circumstances, the less conservative Senate strengthened how much of the ACA was repealed in the reconciliation bill after it originally passed the House last year. That measure got through the Senate in December, and again passed the House early last month.

As expected, President Obama vetoed the bill, which led to the House’s expected override vote. The vote was delayed by a week because of a blizzard that blanketed D.C. and the surrounding regions, and is expected to fail because Republicans need 50 votes more than they garnered last month.

Scalise said the years-long effort to get a Planned Parenthood defunding measure to President Obama’s desk was a success with portends for the future, no matter the final outcome this week. “It puts every Member of Congress on record so the whole country can see where we all stand on this important issue. As a movement, we need to work relentlessly to bring those pro-life values to the Oval Office, and this veto override vote is an important step in our efforts to promote life both in our culture and in our laws.”

Heritage Action’s Dan Holler, whose group has often been a thorn in the side of GOP leaders in both chambers, agreed, telling The Stream, “This vote should serve as a reminder of what is at stake in November. Come January 2017, lawmakers will be well positioned to send a reconciliation bill fully repealing Obamacare to a Republican president’s desk.”

Presidential politics may not be the only thing that dictates whether the ACA and Planned Parenthood will survive in 2017. In addition to attempting to take back the White House, Republicans hold a 54-46 majority in the Senate — and 24 of those seats are at risk, compared to just 10 for Democrats.

Internal divisions could also prove problematic even if Republicans hold both chambers of Congress and the White House in 2017. Illinois Senator Mark Kirk and Maine Senator Susan Collins voted against their leadership in December, and while Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski voted for the legislation, she recently described herself as “a supporter of Planned Parenthood.”