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.
