WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said they were unaware of the recent restoration of Title X funds to Planned Parenthood, but administration sources have attempted to reassure pro-lifers that alternative means of cutting off the funding are in the works.
Last year, the federal government froze $120 million in federal Title X “family-planning” grants to organizations suspected of not complying with the administration’s executive orders against involvement with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The move did not specifically target Planned Parenthood or abortion but covered approximately $20 million received by Planned Parenthood locations across a dozen states.
On Wednesday, LifeSiteNews reported that the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has withdrawn a lawsuit against the move after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed in court that a review had found the affected organizations were not in violation of the DEI rule, and the funding had therefore been restored. The retreat did not affect the majority of the Trump administration’s abortion defunding actions, which are still in effect and being defended from legal challenge, but caused deep alarm among the pro-life movement.
Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese later asked the president about the matter. “I don’t know anything about that; Bobby, do you know anything about that?” Trump responded. Kennedy also said, “I haven’t heard that.”
Meanwhile, Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan reported that White House officials claim the DEI-based Title IX block simply could not have survived the lawsuit under the current rules, but the grants would be subject to unspecified “new regulatory requirements that began in October.”
Further, “HHS plans to update the Biden-era regulations governing the Title X program to ensure program integrity and reflect Trump administration priorities,” she quoted an insider as saying. Details as to how that would specifically relate to abortion industry funding were not revealed.
Presumably, the issue could be rendered moot with the reintroduction of the Protect Life Rule, a key policy of Trump’s first term that required “clear financial and physical separation between Title X-funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning,” and banned “referral for abortion as a method of family planning.” It reduced Planned Parenthood’s annual funding by almost $60 million and disqualified the abortion giant from Title X regardless of its DEI policies, lack thereof, or any other unrelated criteria.
Former President Joe Biden rescinded the rule late in his first year; Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has called on Trump to “immediately reinstate it.”
The controversy comes at a particularly sensitive time for the pro-life movement’s relationship with Trump, who pivoted to the middle on abortion during his 2024 election campaign but whose work to defund the abortion industry had been the strongest remaining manifestation of his first term’s pro-life record.
Within weeks of returning to office, Trump began enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which bans direct federal funding of most abortions; reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for elective abortions abroad; and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending.
In July, Trump signed into law his controversial “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB), a wide-ranging policy package that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to any that provides abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life.
These cuts have significantly impacted the bottom line of Planned Parenthood, which is currently in court to try to stop the federal government from cutting it off. According to Operation Rescue, 54 abortion facilities shut their doors in 2024, 36 of which were Planned Parenthood locations.
However, Trump recently revived pro-life worries when he told a gathering of House Republicans “you’ve got to be a little flexible on Hyde” for the sake of reaching a deal in the narrowly divided Congress on health care reform, an issue that has picked up steam in recent weeks due to the recent expiration of subsidies under the so-called Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare). The declaration sparked alarm and protest from pro-life leaders and activists, many of whom framed Hyde as one of the federal government’s most basic and non-negotiable pro-life obligations.
Asked about the comment the next day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied any change in position and touted the second Trump administration’s record so far of opposing taxpayer funding of abortion but did not specifically rule out some sort of compromise on Hyde in healthcare negotiations, leaving the controversy unresolved.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a firm Trump ally, stated simply in response to questions, “We are not going to change the standard that we’re not going to use taxpayer funding for abortion. I’m just not going to allow that to happen.” Abortion funding reportedly remains the main sticking point in negotiations to restore expired ACA subsidies.
