Anti-abortion leaders furious after Planned Parenthood defunding expires

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Planned Parenthood has regained access to federal funding, enraging anti-abortion conservatives one year after Republicans were able to cut its clinics off from Medicaid.

Beginning July 5, clinics were once again able to bill Medicaid for reimbursement for non-abortion care, like contraception and screenings for sexually transmitted infections.

The new funding will be a lifeline for the organization’s network of clinics and their patients. Medicaid is a significant revenue stream for Planned Parenthood, accounting for more than $800 million. In addition, more than half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid for their health coverage, the organization said.

Last year, Republicans were successful in using the party-line One Big Beautiful Bill Act to achieve their long sought-after goal of defunding Planned Parenthood, though the complicated Senate rules involved in passing the legislation meant the ban only lasted a year.

Now, anti-abortion leaders are furious that congressional Republicans focused on other issues like defense and immigration without extending the ban before it expired. They view it as a reversal of progress and are demanding GOP leaders include an extension in a third party-line reconciliation bill that they want to pass before the end of the year.

Anti-abortion advocacy group Students for Life Action gave every lawmaker an “F” on its “pro life generation report card,” and said they need to “get busy” to replace it.

“The bottom line, pro-life voters want to see healthcare money invested with those who intend for their patients to survive with their lives and fertility intact,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action and Students for Life of America, said in a statement.

Students for Life Action recently picketed outside the Republican National Committee headquarters, urging Republicans not to abandon anti-abortion voters and commit to defunding Planned Parenthood again.

Last year, anti-abortion activists warned lawmakers debating the defunding provision against creating a cliff just ahead of the midterms. They now worry that Republicans are squandering their control of government and won’t get another shot to pass conservative priorities if Congress is split after November.

“It is the default expectation of the pro-life movement for Congress to renew the defunding of Planned Parenthood and abortion businesses, and the politically smart thing for Republicans who must energize the base to win in November,” Kelsey Pritchard, communications director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement to The Hill. “SBA is doing our part by investing $160 million in 2026 and 2028 for Republican pro-life candidates, now Republicans must do their part in doing everything they can to once again defund Big Abortion.”

Lila Rose, president of the anti-abortion group Live Action, said allowing the ban to expire was a “moral failure” that needs to be corrected immediately.

“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.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants to start working on a third reconciliation bill soon, and hard-line conservatives of the House Freedom Caucus are demanding an extension of the Planned Parenthood defunding provision.

But Senate Republicans are cooler to the idea of a third reconciliation bill, and don’t think it’s realistic given the narrow margins the GOP holds and the general reluctance of some lawmakers to start an abortion fight so close to the midterms.

Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions under the longstanding Hyde Amendment, but conservatives sought to put Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions out of business by withholding all federal funding from those clinics. They argued women can receive the same non-abortion care elsewhere.

While the ban did not completely devastate Planned Parenthood’s finances and drive it to financial ruin like many GOP lawmakers had hoped, its health centers suffered; nearly 30 closed nationwide.

Still, Planned Parenthood clinics across the country have been getting word out that they are able to accept Medicaid patients once again.

Updated at 1:55 p.m. EDT

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