On America’s 250th anniversary, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest provider of abortions, will once again be eligible for federal funding after a year-long ban that coincided with the closure of dozens of abortion clinics.
Some members of Congresss, like Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, have promised to do everything they can to prevent the resumption of Planned Parenthood funding.
“I will work with my Republican colleagues to figure out how we can extend this provision,” Ricketts told the Daily Signal. “Allowing taxpayer dollars to fund abortion is an assault on America’s values.”
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which prohibited Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood for one year. The deadline to extend the funding prohibition is now only a little over a week away, and many Republican senators have said they don’t support a third reconciliation package, the most realistic vessel for extending the defund.
Trump told the Daily Signal last month that Planned Parenthood funding is a “thorny issue.”
On Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Allison Schuster told the Daily Signal in a statement, “Through the President’s One Big Beautiful Bill, Congress was able to rightfully restrict funding for Planned Parenthood and other large abortion providers this past year. The Trump administration will continue to hold Planned Parenthood and all recipients of Federal funds fully accountable for any and all instances of waste, fraud, or abuse.”
Congress has established legislative guardrails to prevent the direct funding of abortions in most cases, but some members have pushed to extend the guardrails to prohibit funding of all entities that perform abortions. Tax dollars make up more than one-third of Planned Parenthood’s revenue, as the organization stated in its 2024-2025 report that 38% of its revenue came from “Government Health Services Reimbursements & Grants.”
Noah Brandt, vice president of communications and government affairs at Live Action, a pro-life group, says that last year’s budget bill contributed to closures of Planned Parenthood facilities, but it likely wasn’t the only factor.
Planned Parenthood is moving toward a telehealth model and is reducing its reliance on small clinics in favor of larger facilities, Brandt explained.
“I don’t know if they’re literally going to be building new facilities if they get their federal money back,” Brandt told the Daily Signal, “but they certainly will be doing way more abortions and more trans-ing children.”
Planned Parenthood provides so-called gender-affirming care services to clients, including minors. Live Action recently claimed that Planned Parenthood provides no services to “detransitioners,” people who are seeking to live in accordance with their biological sex after attempting to transition.
Now, as Congress’ August recess and the midterm elections approach, Republicans have few opportunities to address this issue—that is, if they desire to do so.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and one of Congress’ most prominent pro-life legislators, told the Daily Signal in a statement, “It’s unfortunate that Planned Parenthood will once again receive federal taxpayer funding next month.”
The Maryland lawmaker stressed that Republicans must address the issue should they pass another party-line budget.
“We need to fight hard to make sure that if there is a third reconciliation bill, it includes a more permanent funding ban,” Harris said.
There is little chance Senate Democrats would join Republicans to block funding for abortion providers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called last year’s defunding of Planned Parenthood a “backdoor nationwide abortion ban,” and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called it a “war on reproductive health care.”
Many Republicans see another budget reconciliation bill, which could be passed on a party-line vote, as a fleeting opportunity to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. However, Congress has yet to take any meaningful action on advancing such a package.
In the Senate, key Republican stakeholders are publicly dismissive about the chances of passing another reconciliation bill.
“I think it’s safe to conclude there will not be another reconciliation bill,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a June Senate appropriations committee hearing.
“I agree with that assessment,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, replied.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a pro-life ally, told the Daily Signal his fellow Republicans had squandered an opportunity by not trying to extend the funding block in the most recent reconciliation bill, which funded immigration agencies.
“We should have done it this last reconciliation package,” Hawley said. “To my extreme disappointment, the leadership of the House and Senate chose not to do that, which I think… will be inexplicable to pro-life voters.”
“I mean, what are you going to tell them?” he said.
“Yeah, we could have defunded Planned Parenthood, but we decided we’d like to give them a billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid in order to [fund] the trans surgeries for kids? I mean, that’s going to be an interesting argument in November,” Hawley said.
Pro-life leaders are arguing that, should Republicans allow the status quo to return, Planned Parenthood could be well positioned to recover from its temporary lack of federal funding.
Since the defunding, at least 11 states responded by increasing their funding of Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, per a June report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“If they get their Medicaid funding back on top of that, they’re going to be sitting in a pretty good position financially,” Kelsey Pritchard, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s political communications director, told the Daily Signal. “And it’s all the more reason to defund Planned Parenthood and big abortion out of business again this year.”
Asked for comment for this article, Planned Parenthood Action Fund sent the Daily Signal links to several press releases and articles. One of the releases, published on the anniversary of Trump’s second inauguration, included a statement from Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president and CEO, calling the administration’s policies a “relentless assault on access to sexual and reproductive health care.”
“At a time when the Trump administration’s backers in Congress are trying to permanently block Medicaid patients from using their insurance at Planned Parenthood health centers, our work has never been more important,” the statement added.
