(Oregon Right to Life) — U.S. President Donald Trump has set to work carrying out his campaign promises at breakneck speed after taking office January 20. Among his first moves have been a flurry of pro-life actions, including withdrawing taxpayer funding for overseas abortions; rejoining the pro-life Geneva Consensus Declaration; and pardoning pro-life activists imprisoned under the Biden administration.
Encouraged by the quick moves, pro-life advocates nationwide are calling on Trump to go a step further and defund Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion corporation.
Let’s explore how Planned Parenthood currently benefits from federal dollars, whether defunding Planned Parenthood is possible, and what the impact of slashing funding would be.
How Much Taxpayer Money Goes to Planned Parenthood?
Every year, Planned Parenthood receives hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in federal government grants – and the numbers have been steadily increasing year over year.
In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood received $699.3 million in government funding, with federal grants and reimbursements accounting for nearly 40% of all revenue. The 2022-2023 numbers were up from $670.4 million the previous year, and up from $633.4 million the year before that. It was also over $100 million more than the $543.7 million the government supplied to Planned Parenthood in 2016-2017.
Isn’t It Already Illegal to Use Federal Tax Dollars to Fund Abortions?
The federal Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of taxpayer money to pay for abortions. But Planned Parenthood qualifies for the grants due to offering a small number of other reproductive services or products, including STI testing and contraception, which it uses to secure clientele to funnel toward abortion in the event of unplanned pregnancies. In practice, these federal dollars are supporting a corporation that thrives on performing abortions and other controversial services, including “gender-affirming care.”
Claims that only a small percentage of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions (3% is the statistic typically provided), are misleading and have been debunked by even left-wing sources, including Slate and the Washington Post. As Live Action points out, a woman who receives an abortion and also gets an STI exam, contraception, and/or other services, will be counted as having received numerous separate services – even though the abortion was the primary reason she went to the facility.
The data show that Planned Parenthood is fundamentally an abortion business.
In the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Planned Parenthood performed 0% of the nation’s mammograms, 0.7% of all pap tests, and 0.05% of prenatal services, while performing over 40% of the nation’s abortions.
Abortions also make up over 95% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services nationwide, according to the organization’s annual reports.
What Are Pro-Life Advocates Saying?
With Trump taking serious executive action to cut billions of dollars of federal spending, pro-life advocates are more actively seeking to direct the president’s attention toward cutting funds to Planned Parenthood.
Might Trump Actually Defund Planned Parenthood?
Trump’s first few weeks in office have proven his willingness to make drastic changes at the federal level, as well as make moves long sought by pro-life advocates. In fact, just days after taking office, he signed an executive order to withdraw taxpayer funding from overseas abortions, stripping an estimated $100 million from the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
And by authorizing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the leadership of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk (who previously eliminated 80% of Twitter’s workforce upon taking over the social media company in 2022) to review spending and recommend cuts, Trump has undertaken a massive project to eliminate wasteful spending at historic rates and in record time.
These conditions put him in an ideal position to officially remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood, something that his allies have already suggested he may indeed do.
On the campaign trail, Trump’s then-running mate and now vice president, J.D. Vance, gave an affirmative reply when asked whether a second Trump presidency would slash funding for Planned Parenthood.
“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions,” Vance said in October. Some Planned Parenthood facilities, including the facility in Northeast Portland, Oregon, perform abortions through 24 weeks gestation – an age when the unborn baby is well developed, can feel pain, and is capable of surviving outside the womb.
“That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around,” Vance continued. “It will remain a consistent view.”
Following Trump’s re-election in November, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (who briefly led DOGE with Musk but since stepped down to run for Ohio governor) published an op-ed declaring the purpose and intentions of DOGE, in which they noticeably name-checked Planned Parenthood.
“DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote, “from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.”
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has also repeatedly stated that he is in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood.
For his part, Trump has not directly said whether or not he would defund the abortion giant. However, pro-life advocates have noted that the president’s comments and actions to date suggest that Planned Parenthood is unlikely to be immune from the Trump administration’s sweeping budget cuts.
Moreover, a recent poll indicates that defunding Planned Parenthood could be a popular move for Trump. According to a Knights of Columbus-Marist poll released last month, 57% of respondents said they disagreed with using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.
What Would the Impact of Defunding Planned Parenthood Be?
With such a significant percentage of annual funds coming from federal grants, defunding Planned Parenthood could seriously impact the organization’s ability to continue supplying abortion-on-demand throughout the nation. The organization itself warns that the elimination of funds could drastically hinder the provision of its services, particularly to rural and economically disadvantaged areas – areas in which vulnerable women are often disproportionately targeted by abortion providers.
And though Planned Parenthood emphasizes the importance of the non-abortion services it provides (like STI screening and breast exams), those services make up a tiny percentage of what Planned Parenthood offers. Moreover, those services are already available from clinics, pharmacies, and licensed physicians who can continue serving women and families without the assistance of a multi-million dollar abortion corporation.
Meanwhile, the potential to not merely defund Planned Parenthood but redirect funds toward life-affirming alternatives – as promoted by pro-life advocates like Lila Rose – could be part of a major cultural shift.
It’s important to note that defunding Planned Parenthood wouldn’t solve everything.
Defunding Planned Parenthood would not end abortion in the U.S., and it’s likely that the Trump administration would face a fierce legal battle from pro-abortion activists if it does choose to strip away federal funding.
But there is no doubt that removing federal taxpayer dollars from Planned Parenthood would be a tremendous step away from the pro-abortion narrative and toward the platforming of real options that help mothers, babies, and families survive and thrive.
Oregon Right to Life believes in the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation. In rare cases, a mother may have a life threatening condition in which medical procedures intended to treat the condition of the mother may result in the unintended death of her preborn baby. At the same time, ORTL recognizes that modern medical practice has and will continue to increase the ability to save both the life of the mother and the baby.
