Students for Life Action is launching a month-long campaign to pressure 12 GOP senators to support defunding Planned Parenthood and other abortion organizations in the “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
The pro-life organization’s campaign will last through the month of June as senators consider a giant budget reconciliation bill. The House passed a version of the bill last week that strips taxpayer funding from abortion organizations through Medicaid, and now the Senate will weigh the 1,000-page bill and work on its own version.
Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins said:
The grassroots energy that blanketed the nation as the U.S. House debated our nation’s budget will be focused on GOP members in the U.S. Senate. From their districts to their offices in Washington D.C., the Pro-Life Generation won’t rest until abortion vendors like Planned Parenthood are told to go fund themselves. It makes no sense to talk about baby boom payments or support for the highly troubled IVF industry while we are propping up disreputable abortion vendors with our tax money. It’s time for the GOP to pick a lane.
Hawkins said the organization will score how senators vote on the reconciliation bill and will specifically focus on a target list of U.S. senators who are “friends and sometimes foes, all of whom are expressing reluctance on the need to set aside our differences to prioritize getting abortion vendors out of our healthcare spending.”
Those senators and their Students for Life Action Pro-Life Generation Report Card scores are:
- Sen. Shelley Capito (R-WV): B-
- Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME): F
- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI): B
- Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT): A
- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): B+
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): F
- Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): B-
- Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL): A+
- Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK): C
- Senate Leader John Thune (R-SD): A
- Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): B+
- Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): C
“Pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion,” Hawkins added. “Our friends in the U.S. Senate need to know that pro-life voters will not forgive and forget the continued waste of our resources on Planned Parenthood and Big Abortion.”
Planned Parenthood released its 2023-2024 annual report over Mother’s Day weekend, revealing record abortions and taxpayer funding. The report, called “A Force For Hope,” states that 402,230 unborn babies were killed in abortions, up from 392,715 the previous year. At the same time, the organization received $792.2 million in taxpayer funding, up almost $100 million from the previous year.
Defunding abortion providers through the reconciliation process would allow the Senate to bypass the critical 60-vote threshold for a simple majority vote instead, capitalizing on Republicans’ trifecta. While federal funding for abortions specifically is barred by the Hyde Amendment, pro-life opponents argue no federal funds should be used prop up any organization that performs abortions.
In 2015 and 2017, during President Trump’s first term, he ended giving taxpayer dollars to abortion organization through reconciliation. Conservatives and pro-life organizations have been aggressively urging Republicans and the president to do so again.
A House version of the reconciliation bill states:
No federal funds that are considered direct spending and provided to carry out a State plan under title XIX of the Social Security Act or a waiver of such a plan shall be used to make payments to a prohibited entity for items and services furnished during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, including any payments made directly to the prohibited entity or under a contract or other arrangement between a State and a covered organization.
The bill classifies as a “prohibited entity” a community provider “that is primarily engaged in family planning services, reproductive health, and related medical care and provides for abortions…” The prohibition does not apply to abortions carried out after rape or incest, or in the case where a woman “suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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