Several House Republicans are reportedly opposing efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, in President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”
Moderate GOP lawmakers, including Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Lawler of New York, urged House GOP leadership in a closed-door meeting Tuesday evening to refrain from inserting language to ban federal funding to Planned Parenthood in the forthcoming package, NOTUS first reported. Though the Hyde Amendment bans federal dollars from directly funding abortions, pro-life advocates have argued that congressional Republicans must end all taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood, including barring Medicaid reimbursements to organizations that provide abortions.
The House Energy and Commerce is mulling over whether to strip federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The committee is tasked with identifying at least $880 billion in spending cuts over a ten-year period.
Planned Parenthood received nearly $2 billion in federal funding between 2019 and 2021, according to a December 2023 Government Accountability Office report. The organization performed more than 1 million abortions during that time span.
House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged to target “Big Abortion” in the president’s tax and spending package while delivering the keynote speech at the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America dinner in April.
“We’re absolutely making it clear to everybody that this bill is going to redirect funds away from big abortion and to federally qualified health centers,” Johnson said at the event.
Key moderate Republicans in the House Republican conference could stand in the way of that push.
“We need simplicity in this bill,” Fitzpatrick told reporters before the meeting with moderate House GOP lawmakers and leadership, arguing against incorporating a provision to bar federal dollars to Planned Parenthood. “I think there’s other policy areas that we need to focus on.”
Lawler suggested to NOTUS Tuesday that he would be against completely defunding Planned Parenthood, citing other services the abortion provider offers.
“Fundamentally, obviously, from the standpoint of providing health care to women, you know, I’m not for taking away people’s health care,” Lawler said.
Fitzpatrick and Lawler represent battleground House districts that House Democrats’ campaign arm is seeking to flip. Former Vice President Kamala Harris notably won both of their districts by less than one percentage point each in November.
The NOTUS report also claimed that Republican Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans was among GOP House moderates pitching leadership against moving forward with defunding Planned Parenthood. Kiggans’ office disputed the allegation, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that the Virginia Republican lawmakers’ position was “taken completely out of context.”
“This report is false and takes Congresswoman Kiggans’ position out of context,” Kiggans’ office told the DCNF in a statement. “Congresswoman Kiggans is proudly pro-life and firmly opposes any federal funding for abortion. She attended a closed-door policy discussion with House leadership and Republican colleagues focused on Medicaid reform within the broader reconciliation process.”
“The Congresswoman supports thoughtful, targeted Medicaid reforms that strengthen the program, preserve its integrity and ensure it serves those who it was originally intended to help,” Kiggans’ office continued. “She remains focused on working with her Republican colleagues to pass a reconciliation package that reflects the commonsense, conservative priorities the American people voted for in November.”
President Donald Trump was noncommittal when asked by the National Review about moderate House Republicans reportedly coming out against defunding Planned Parenthood.
“I don’t know yet,” Trump said Wednesday. “I have to see because you just told me that for the first time, we’ll work something out.”
Spokespeople for Lawler and Fitzpatrick did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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