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Conservative organizations are urging congressional Republicans to restore a federal ban on Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood after a one-year restriction expired Friday, arguing its lapse reverses one of the pro-life movement’s most significant policy victories since the Supreme Court overturned Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The provision, enacted last year through Republicans’ budget reconciliation law, barred Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood and other large abortion providers for non-abortion health services. Congress did not extend the measure before lawmakers left Washington for the Independence Day recess, allowing it to expire.
Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said he had long doubted Republican leaders would have another opportunity to revive the restriction through the budget reconciliation process.
“I’ve thought all along that a third reconciliation bill is highly unlikely for any number of reasons. When [leadership] said, ‘Well, we’ll do that later,’ my point was always: I don’t know that there’ll be a later,” Hawley told Politico.
Hawley called the decision not to include another Planned Parenthood funding restriction in Republicans’ immigration-focused reconciliation package approved in June “a huge missed opportunity.”
“The fact that congressional leaders decided not to defund them as part of the last reconciliation bill is just beyond me,” he said.
“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.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser also called on Republicans to restore the policy.
“Defunding Big Abortion is now the default expectation of the pro-life movement,” she said in a statement.
“When they return to D.C., Republicans must do all they can through reconciliation to once again block taxpayer dollars from Planned Parenthood and abortion businesses,” she said.
The House Freedom Caucus likewise urged Republican leaders to pursue another reconciliation bill that would again prohibit federal Medicaid funding for abortion providers.
With the federal restriction now expired, anti-abortion groups say they will focus on persuading Congress to revive the funding ban while encouraging Republican-led states to use their newly affirmed authority to exclude Planned Parenthood from their Medicaid programs.
