Planned Parenthood Can Receive Federal Funding Once Again

Planned Parenthood can once again qualify for federal funding after a one-year ban established by last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) expired on July 5. Anti-abortion activists are urging President Donald Trump and the GOP to make reinstating and expanding the ban a top priority.

Lila Rose, who heads the anti-abortion organization Live Action, said the ban’s expiration is a “moral failure” that must be quickly remedied. “President Trump and Congress must act as fast as possible to restore and extend the defunding of Planned Parenthood and every organization that commits abortion,” Rose said in a statement.

Planned Parenthood Funding

Republicans used Trump’s signature legislation, the OBBB, to defund Planned Parenthood – but due to complex Senate rules, the ban was restricted to just one year. Now, the organization will be able to access Medicaid funding for non-abortion care.

Under the Hyde Amendment, federal funding cannot be used for most abortions or “health benefits coverage that includes abortion,” according to the Congressional Research Service. The restriction does not include “abortions of pregnancies that are the result of rape or incest (‘rape or incest exception’), or where a woman would be in danger of death if an abortion is not performed (‘life-saving exception’).”

Of course, even when funding is earmarked for one specific purpose, it can free up an organization’s own money to be spent elsewhere – in Planned Parenthood’s case, on abortions. So, indirectly, one could easily argue that Medicaid funding supports both non-abortion and abortion care.

“We cannot require Americans who have moral objections to this practice of abortion – religious objections, in so many cases – to violate their deepest convictions with their taxpayer money,” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) told Restoration News. “And so, this has to be a priority for the Republican Party moving forward. It certainly won’t be a priority of the Democratic Party.”

Young agreed that the government funding provided to Planned Parenthood is fungible. “They may be used to fix the roof, but then the money that was set aside for the capital budget is used to perform unacceptable and morally objectionable abortions,” he added. “We want to make sure that never happens. The moral stain of that sort of activity is not something that our taxpayers should have to subsidize.”

Funding Ban Effects

Prior to its expiration, the funding ban achieved the GOP’s goal of limiting Planned Parenthood’s abortion services – if you can call them that. A new report from Planned Parenthood Action Fund states that the OBBB caused dozens of “health centers” to close.

Planned Parenthood received a whopping $832 million, nearly 40% of its total revenue, in “Government Health Services Reimbursements & Grants” in fiscal year 2024–2025, according to the organization’s annual report. That same year, Planned Parenthood performed 434,450 abortions, and the organization’s affiliates “disbursed $3.7 million to more than 12,200 patients to help them overcome barriers to abortion care — providing funding for transportation, lodging, meals, and dependent care while traveling to appointments.”

Planned Parenthood has lots of “help” to go around when it comes to providing abortions. All pro-life eyes are on the GOP heading into the midterms. Will Republicans restore the funding ban or allow taxpayer dollars to keep flowing to the nation’s largest abortion provider?