House’s defunding Planned Parenthood draws mixed reactions

Pro-life and Christian leaders offered mixed reactions after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill this week that would strip federal funding from the nation’s largest abortion provider, as it still awaits approval from the U.S. Senate and President Donald Trump. 

In a 215-214 vote Wednesday, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed House Resolution 1, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The vote on the measure fell mainly along party lines, with all Democrats opposing it and two Republicans breaking from their party by voting against it. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted against the bill, while a third Republican, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, voted “present.” 

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While the wide-ranging bill contains over 1,100 pages of text, a provision that would have the effect of defunding Planned Parenthood — which receives over $700 million in government funding each year — has received particular attention and praise from pro-life advocacy groups and religious organizations. 

Section 44126 declares 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 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.”

A “prohibited entity” is defined as a non-profit organization that “provides for abortions.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the leading national grassroots pro-life advocacy organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, described the House’s passage of HR 1 as “a big step toward stopping forced taxpayer funding of the Big Abortion industry.”

She called it “a crucial win in the fight against America’s #1 cause of death — abortion — and against waste and corruption.” 

“There is no excuse for forcing taxpayers to prop up a scandal-ridden industry that prioritizes abortions, gender transitions and partisan political activism instead of prenatal care, cancer screening and other legitimate health services that are in continual decline,” she said in a statement Thursday.

“We now urge the Senate to do its part, and both chambers to come together and get it across the finish line. More than 400,000 babies a year, their mothers, and countless American taxpayers are depending on you.” 

The measure’s fate now rests in the hands of the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning that if support for the legislation comes down along party lines as it largely did in the House, they can only afford to lose the support of three senators for the bill to pass. 

Carol Tobias, president of the pro-life organization National Right to Life, said, “this bill would put the brakes on federal funding of the abortion industry.” 

“Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is also one of the nation’s most successful ‘non-profits’ — raking in over $2 billion in revenue every year,” she said. “It is time that Planned Parenthood, and organizations like it, stop receiving tax dollars from hardworking Americans.”

According to its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood performed an all-time high of over 402,000 abortions in the fiscal year 2023-2024, all the while the number of other health services it offers, like cancer screenings, continued to decline. It received about 39% of its revenue from government health services reimbursements and grants, totaling $792 million. 

“As the nation’s single largest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood took the lives of over 400,000 unborn babies last year and reached this monstrous goal with the help of American taxpayers,:” Tobias said.  

Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, stressed that the House’s passage of HR 1 shows that “Congress still listens.”

Across several federal administrations and congresses, pro-life advocates have long called for Planned Parenthood to be stripped of tax dollars. Federal law has banned federal funding for abortion (except in rare circumstances) for nearly five decades under a provision known as the Hyde Amendment to avoid forcing American taxpayers to pay for a procedure that many find morally objectionable. 

“Passage of this bill is a significant step toward establishing a true culture of life in America,” Leatherwood said in a statement.

“Because this effort isn’t just about saving tax dollars, it’s about who we are morally as a nation. Preborn lives and families are at stake. Cutting off the hundreds of millions of dollars that flow to predatory organizations like Planned Parenthood will be a gut punch to the abortion industry.”

While most reactions to the measure from the pro-life community have been overwhelmingly positive, Katie Brown Xavios of the American Life League maintained that “this bill is not the full win it’s being portrayed to be.”

Xavios expressed concern that the House-approved “big, beautiful bill” will “still fund Planned Parenthood for abortions in the cases of rape, incest, and the mother’s health.”

“Give Planned Parenthood an inch, and they will take a mile,” she warned. “If the exceptions are the only way Planned Parenthood will get paid, you had better believe that every abortion will now become a life-or-death situation so that Planned Parenthood ensures that it will get its money.”