FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL — Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is urging his colleagues in the Senate GOP to hold the line on pro-life and prevent federal funds from going to abortions.
In a letter sent to his Republican colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday, the Texas Senator urged his fellow appropriators to protect the Hyde Amendment in any potential conference agreement or appropriations package.
“As negotiations with your Democratic counterparts continue, I urge you to maintain all provisions that protect against federal funding of elective abortions in any potential conference agreement or appropriations package,” Cornyn wrote in the document addressed to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies.
In the One Big Beautiful Bill, which was signed into law in July, congressional Republicans stripped Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides the most amount of abortions in the country. In the past, Planned Parenthood has received more than one-third of its overall funding from grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements provided by the American government.
“By halting taxpayer funding of abortion through the Medicaid program, Republicans showed that even in the wake of the historic Dobbs decision, our fight is not over, and we reasserted our commitment to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities,” Cornyn explained in the letter.
“The ongoing legal fight over this provision highlights the continued threat of the big abortion industry and the need for pro-life lawmakers to remain vigilant,” the Texas senator continued.
Since the advent of the Hyde Amendment in the 1970s, pro-life legislators have attempted to curb direct and indirect federal funding for elective abortions. Cornyn estimates in his letter that approximately 2,646,000 lives have been saved as a result following that congressional decision.
Cornyn noted the hardball tactics employed by the Democrats to get Big Abortion back on the federal funding circuit.
“Democrats shut down the government for 43 days in an unsuccessful attempt to undue the work Republicans accomplished in OBBBA, including the progress we made to stop forced taxpayer funding of abortion,” Cornyn wrote. “Now is not the time to give an inch on our pro-life values.”
The Texas senator is currently facing two major challengers, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt, for his Senate seat in 2026 GOP primary that will be held in March. Some recent polling shows a close three-way race.
