Senate votes to defund Planned Parenthood for one year

The U.S. Senate voted 51-49 on Tuesday to pass the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” a budget reconciliation bill which includes the defunding of abortion providers like Planned Parenthood for one year. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

Key Takeaways:

• On Tuesday, the Senate voted to pass the budget reconciliation bill, which contains a provision to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers for one year. This is far less than the 10 years of defunding contained in the original House bill.

• VP JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, and now the bill returns to the House.

• Planned Parenthood is the nation’s top abortion provider and one of the top providers of transgender hormones for minors in the U.S., receiving nearly $800M from taxpayers annually — and there are many reasons why it should not be supported with taxpayer dollars.

The Details:

The U.S. House narrowly passed its version of the bill in May, which included the defunding of Planned Parenthood for 10 years. Because the Senate made changes to the bill, the legislation will now return to the House, where it is expected to face challenges. Lawmakers hope to pass the bill before July 4. According to The Hill:

The sprawling package still faces challenges in the House due to deeper cuts to federal Medicaid spending, an accelerated phaseout of clean-energy tax breaks and changes to a deal to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions.

At least six House Republicans have threatened to oppose the Senate bill because of the changes to the House-passed legislation, and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is viewed as likely to vote no because the package would add more than $3 trillion to the debt.

Why It Matters:

As Live Action News previously noted, the corporation’s most recent annual report (2023-24) revealed yet another record-setting year for Planned Parenthood’s abortions — over 402,000 — with a staggering total of nearly $800 million in taxpayer dollars going to the nation’s leading abortion provider. It is also one of the top providers of so-called “gender-affirming care,” even for minors.

In the U.S. alone, Planned Parenthood kills 1,076 preborn children every day — nearly 45 per hour, and one every 80 seconds. Yet, as abortions have increased, many other legitimate health services offered by Planned Parenthood have drastically declined. And taxpayer funding continues to increase year over year, propping up the corporation that commits 40% of the nation’s abortions.

Planned Parenthood has also been caught in scandal after scandal, aiding sexual abusers and traffickers, misleading women, coercing patients to abort, failing to protect patient privacy, and much more.

A recent undercover investigation also found several Planned Parenthood centers willingly prescribe transgender hormones to 16-year-olds upon first visit, and with no prior therapy or mental health evaluation.

Commentary:

In a press release, Live Action founder and president Lila Rose pointed out the more than 200 unified demonstrations calling for the defunding of Planned Parenthood that took place on Saturday, June 28th.

“This past Saturday, Live Action led over 200 peaceful demonstrations in every state where Planned Parenthood operates. Thousands of Americans stood up to say with one voice: We will not fund the killing of our children through abortion.” Rose added:

The one-year defunding of Planned Parenthood passed by the Senate is just the beginning. It is the first step toward fully and permanently ending all taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and shutting this corrupt and violent organization down for good.

The House should amend this bill to restore the original 10-year defund. The American people do not want to subsidize the killing of children….

Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion chain in America and a perpetrator of medical abuse against children through the dispensation of cross-sex hormones. Not one more dollar should go to them. Congress must finish the job and permanently defund and shut down Planned Parenthood.

Other pro-life leaders issued similar sentiments, including Students for Life of America president Kristan Hawkins, who tweeted in a thread, stating:

… A small but important victory as the “Big, Beautiful” Budget Bill just passed the U.S. Senate, and it cuts an estimated $500 million from Planned Parenthood and abortion vendors for one year only….

Originally, the bill would have defunded Planned Parenthood from most federal funding (all of their Medicaid $$ which is like 80% of their federal funding) for 10 years, a move that they said could shut down a third of their facilities and save over 123,000 babies every year, at least. But, in the final version, that defunding was reduced to just 1 year. So, we don’t know how much of an impact this will make on the billion dollar Planned Parenthood especially with Democrat Governors in their pockets pledging more forced taxpayer funding.

Still, this matters. This proves what we’ve said all along: Congress can cut Planned Parenthood’s funding — and they just did. The moral obligation is clear: If we can do it for 1 year, we must do it for good….