Anti-abortion movement rift with GOP deepens as Planned Parenthood funding resumes

The rift between anti-abortion advocates and the Republican Party widened on Sunday as federal funding for Planned Parenthood resumed following the one-year pause on Medicaid reimbursements for the nation’s largest abortion provider. 

Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services, such as sexually transmitted infection testing and birth control, were paused last year as part of the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but funding officially resumed on Sunday. 

Prohibiting Medicaid funding, which covers low-income and disabled people, for large abortion providers, referred to as “defunding Planned Parenthood,” had been a white whale for the anti-abortion movement for decades.

Although federal Medicaid dollars are prohibited from covering abortions, anti-abortion advocates argue that Medicaid reimbursements amount to funding for abortion because additional federal dollars in Planned Parenthood’s coffers free up nongovernment money to be spent on abortion services.

Anti-abortion advocates who celebrated the reimbursement pause when it was included in the OBBBA last year have lamented that the defunding was only for one year. Anti-abortion groups have been pressuring members of Congress and the Trump administration to extend the defunding, to no avail.

Republicans have come under criticism from anti-abortion advocacy groups, including those that provide rankings for the most anti-abortion legislators as a guide for voters.

Kristan Hawkins, president of the hard-line anti-abortion group Students for Life, said on X over the weekend that her organization gave every member of Congress an “F” for failing to reauthorize the defunding of Planned Parenthood. 

“Congress must act, and the Trump Administration should permanently debar Planned Parenthood from all federal funding,” Hawkins wrote on X Sunday. “The pro-life movement isn’t grading on a curve.”

Lila Rose, founder of the anti-abortion group Live Action, posted on X on July 4 that the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States ought to be celebrated by again revoking Planned Parenthood reimbursement.

“They’re responsible for killing over 400,000 American unborn babies each year. On America’s 250 birthday, we should be allowing every child to have a birthday,” Rose said.

Planned Parenthood is set to regain federal funding today.

They’re responsible for killing over 400,000 American unborn babies each year.

On America’s 250 birthday, we should be allowing every child to have a birthday.

The lack of action from Congress marks a deepening division between the anti-abortion wing of the GOP and Republican leadership.

President Donald Trump distanced himself on the 2024 campaign trail from the anti-abortion base of the GOP, going so far as to exclude long-standing anti-abortion language about the sanctity of unborn life from the party’s platform. 

The Trump administration also clashed with the anti-abortion movement with its decision to not yet roll back Biden administration rules allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be sold online across state lines.

Hawkins from Students for Life, among others, said at the time the OBBBA was passed that defunding Planned Parenthood in GOP tax-and-spending bills would become the minimum standard leaders in the movement would accept moving forward, but that goal has not materialized.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told the Washington Examiner in April that it would not be possible to add defunding language to the second party-line spending bill passed by Congress earlier this year through the reconciliation process to fund immigration enforcement. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Politico prior to funding resuming, he believes it will prove to be a political miscalculation from Republican leadership not to have used the reconciliation bill as an opportunity to regain trust from anti-abortion voters by continuing to block Medicaid reimbursement for Planned Parenthood.

“That was really taking the pro-life movement and pro-life voters for granted, because you’re depending on those voters to turn out and vote for you in November,” Hawley said.

Medicaid reimbursements are resuming, but the year without them has been somewhat of a financial blow to Planned Parenthood. 

As of January 2025, 57 Planned Parenthood clinics closed nationwide, according to an analysis from the health policy group KFF. 

Another clinic, Planned Parenthood of Iowa City Health Clinic, is scheduled to close as of July 31. The closure will leave only one Planned Parenthood facility in Iowa, in Des Moines, which will also offer telehealth services statewide. 

Ruth Richardson, head of Planned Parenthood North Central States, which oversees clinics in Iowa, told the Des Moines Register that the funding losses to her organization present “the hardest moment for the reproductive freedom movement in modern day history.” 

“By protecting our core infrastructure now, we will be ready to expand care again when the pendulum shifts — because it will,” Richardson said.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America released a financial report on Tuesday saying that Medicaid patient visits dropped by 25%, or more than 250,000 visits, during the one year it lost funding. 

In September, the first month the reimbursement ban took effect, Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide delivered uncompensated care to 100,000 Medicaid beneficiaries, absorbing $45 million in costs. 

A spokesperson for the organization did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for the total amount of uncompensated care delivered by Planned Parenthood during the entire year without Medicaid reimbursement.

But during this period, states also increased Planned Parenthood funding, contributing upward of $400 million to keep state affiliates open.

Although Congress did not reauthorize a pause on Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood, the Trump administration is advancing other ways to limit federal dollars to the abortion provider. 

In April, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health Office of Population Affairs announced that applicants for Title X family planning funds. The Title X program provides federal reimbursement for reproductive health services for low-income people and is another critical revenue stream for Planned Parenthood. 

The new Notice of Funding Opportunity, published in April by OASH, states that all applicants for Title X funding must undergo an “alignment review” to determine eligibility for the grant, in accordance with OASH and the Department of Health and Human Services’ policy priorities. That includes support for natural family planning as well as no longer providing minors with transgender medical treatments, such as cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers.

This is not the first time the administration has tried to restrict Title X funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Trump administration last year withheld tens of millions in Title X funds for Planned Parenthood affiliates, but these funds were eventually dispensed after protracted lawsuits. According to KFF, roughly 50 Planned Parenthood clinics dropped out of the Title X program in 2025. 

OASH also announced late last month that it was terminating $67 million in Teen Pregnancy Prevention grants that promoted overly sexualized content in schools. 

Several Planned Parenthood affiliates, including Planned Parenthood California Central Coast and Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, were among those whose grants were terminated by OASH. 

A copy of the letter notifying grantees of the termination, reported by the Daily Signal, says Trump administration officials found the curricula to “normalize adolescent sexual activity” and contained “overly sexually explicit or pornographic content” that did not advance the program’s mission.