As the U.S. celebrated its 250th birthday, Planned Parenthood cheered the return of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding as lawmakers failed to extend the law banning its federal funding.
The Republican-controlled Congress missed the deadline to extend the prohibition of Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding which expired on July 4.
The nation’s largest abortion provider originally lost this funding in July 2025 when President Trump signed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law. Republican lawmakers originally intended to halt Planned Parenthood’s federal funding for 10 years, but eventually shortened it to only one year, which ended July 4.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley attempted to extend Planned Parenthood’s funding cut with an amendment to the budget resolution in April, but the Senate narrowly voted it down, according to Politico. Two Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted in opposition to the amendment.
Anti-abortion activist and president of Students for Life of America, Kristan Hawkins, called on Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress to take action and defund Planned Parenthood “for good,” during a June 27 speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference.
Hawkins warned in her remarks that if “the Senate fails to renew last year’s defunding of Planned Parenthood by July 4” then the organization “stands to gain more than $600 million of our taxpayer dollars.”
Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, wants to work on a third reconciliation bill, and some Republicans on the Freedom Caucus are pushing for a provision on extending Planned Parenthood’s defunding, according to The Hill. However, Republican senators are wary of the idea considering Republicans hold a narrow majority in the Senate.
Some lawmakers are reluctant to start an abortion fight with the midterms approaching in November, the outlet reported.
However, Hawkins cautioned that Republicans should not take pro-lifers’ votes for granted in the coming election cycle.
“This week we started our week at Students for Life on the picket line in front of the RNC [Republican National Committee] headquarters here in town, not because we’re anyone’s enemy, because we wanted to remind the Party that we all belong to that we have to see a return on our investments,” she said in her June speech. “We want to keep this coalition together for November.”
Hawley and Johnson each did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
Outgoing Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines did not think it was likely for the defunding to be extended by July 4. He explained that a third reconciliation bill would be the only way to extend the defunding of Planned Parenthood, according to News Of The United States (NOTUS). Trump’s OBBBA was a reconciliation bill as well.
“Defunding Big Abortion is now the default expectation of the pro-life movement. 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,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in statement via a July 1 press release.
(DCNF)
