A coalition of pro-life groups sent a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) on Wednesday urging the Senate to ban federal funding for abortion providers, like Planned Parenthood, for the next decade.
“The current prohibition on federal tax dollar funding for abortion businesses, which President Donald Trump signed as part of last year’s budget bill, is set to expire this Independence Day,” Fox News first reported. “With the deadline fast approaching and congressional majorities subject to change this November, the groups stressed in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune that the lives of unborn children — and hundreds of millions in annual tax dollars — are at stake.”
In their letter, pro-life leaders told Thune that passing a ten-year ban on federal funds to abortion providers would “represent one of the most meaningful pro-taxpayer reforms Congress can enact.”
Abortion giant Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report shows $832 million in taxpayer funding and 434,450 unborn babies aborted between 2023-2024 — a record high. The letter contended that “at a time of historic federal debt and growing budgetary pressure, continuing to subsidize the abortion industry is neither fiscally responsible nor defensible.”
While the Hyde Amendment bans federal funding from going to most abortions, Republicans and pro-life leaders have long argued that organizations that perform abortions should not be propped up by taxpayer dollars. In President Donald Trump’s 2025 spending bill, Congress barred Medicaid payments from going to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood.
The pro-life groups — which include Live Action, Students for Life, CatholicVote, and 34 other pro-life leaders and organizations — also pointed out that Planned Parenthood provides other services, including “gender transition interventions, including for minors” and sex education programs that “promote inappropriate content to minors while denying parents meaningful transparency.”
The leaders told Thune that the budget reconciliation process is still the best way to take down abortion businesses, and that “defunding provisions fall squarely within reconciliation’s fiscal and policy scope.” They added that making the defunding provision last for a decade would “provide long-term policy stability, protect taxpayers, and prevent future administrations from restoring funding through executive action alone.”
In response to the letter, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson slammed Republicans and called the previous ban “unconstitutional.” The abortion organization said 23 of its clinics have had to close because of the previous spending bill. More than 50 Planned Parenthood clinics spanning 18 states closed last year, according to the report.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said, “any member of Congress who supports this proposal is choosing to sacrifice our health care system and Planned Parenthood health center patients who already struggle to get care, just so they can score points for their anti-abortion agenda,” adding that “people’s ability to get the health care they need is on the line.”
“President Trump and his backers in Congress have already caused irreparable harm when they passed a law ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood,” Johnson said. “Planned Parenthood Action Fund will never stop fighting to protect everyone’s access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who on Wednesday introduced an amendment that would allow Congress to ban Medicaid funds to abortion providers in the future, as long as the legislation does not increase the federal deficit between 2026 and 2035, told the outlet it is “unacceptable” for America to fund Planned Parenthood again on July 4th.
“I filed an amendment this morning to BAN federal funding for Planned Parenthood. Hardworking Americans should not have to foot the bill for abortions or gender transitions. Congress must act now and pass my amendment,” Hawley said.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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