Life Advocacy Briefing

Question of the Week

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New Planned Parenthood Probe on Tap in Congress

THE ‘DOGE’ SUBCOMMITTEE of the US House Oversight Committee announced in mid-June it will re-launch a formal investigation of Planned Parenthood. It is expected the subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Marjorie Greene (R-GA), will take up evidence produced by investigative journalist David Daleiden, who first uncovered the abortion behemoth’s engagement in trafficking of baby body parts through his Center for Medical Progress.

No Taxpayer $ for Planned Parenthood!

BET YOU ALREADY KNOW: The President’s budget reconciliation bill has passed both houses of Congress, and we expect he will have signed it by the time our readers receive this edition of our bulletin. Here’s what we know about the impact on the cause of Life.

Thanks to a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian, the House-passed exclusion of Planned Parenthood from US taxpayer funding for a period of 10 years was reduced in the Senate version to a one-year ban, but, according to a variety of sources, that one-year disqualification remained in the bill when it was passed by the Senate and then confirmed in the House.

Reports Ben Johnson for The Washington Stand, during the Senate’s amendment marathon, “the Senate narrowly voted down an amendment to strike down even that brief [one-year] funding interlude, on a 51-49 vote. Two ‘pro-choice’ Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted with the Democrats to fund the nation’s largest abortion business,” notes Mr. Johnson, “which committed 402,230 abortions and received $792.2 million in taxpayer funding in 2024,” one of the best cuts Congress could make! We publish the voting record at the close of this Life Advocacy Briefing.

Unfinished Business

July 2, 2025, excerpt from LifeSiteNews analysis by Calvin Freiburger

                  … Abortion: The Senate BBB [Big Beautiful Bill] states that “No federal funds that are considered direct spending and provided to carry out a state plan under Title XIX of the Social Security Act or a waiver of such a plan shall be used to make payments to a prohibited entity for items and services furnished during the one-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.” A “prohibited entity” is any that provides abortions for reasons other than rape, incest or supposed threats to the mother’s life.

             However, the ban only applies to entities that receive[d] more than $800,000 in fiscal year 2023, and more significantly, the single-year time frame is a far cry from the decade to which the original language applied, ensuring a future Congress would have to vote much sooner to keep the abortion industry defunded, and running the risk of the funding automatically resuming if the 2026 midterm elections deprive Republicans of control of at least one chamber.

                  “The one-year defunding of Planned Parenthood passed by the Senate is just the beginning,” Live Action founder and president Lila Rose responded. “It is the first step toward fully and permanently ending all taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and shutting this corrupt and violent organization down for good. The House should amend this bill to restore the original 10-year defund. The American people do not want to subsidize the killing of children.”

                  Family Research Council president Tony Perkins went further, declaring that the abortion defunding is effectively “gone,” because, “let’s be honest – a one-year pause in federal funding does not reach the threshold of federal defunding.” …

Meanwhile, a Consequential High Court Ruling

July 2, 2025, The Washington Stand analysis by Daniel Schmid

             In the debate over whether individuals can enforce rights under laws passed via the Spending Clause of Article I, Section 8, of the US Constitution, one significant truth clearly emerges from the recent Supreme Court decision in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic: States have the authority to defund Planned Parenthood through Medicaid, and there is nothing Abortion, Inc. can do about it.

             Sixty years ago, Congress created Medicaid to provide healthcare services to those who Congress deemed at the time to be unable to pay for basic healthcare needs. In one of the House reports on the issue, Congress noted that Medicaid’s financial partnership between the federal government and the states was created because “these people are the most needy in the country and it is appropriate for medical care costs to be met, first, for these people.” Those most qualified for Medicaid dollars were individuals Congress declared as “categorically needy.”

             In Medina, the Supreme Court just reviewed a case involving South Carolina’s decision to exercise its authority under the Medicaid funding partnership to remove Planned Parenthood from its list of “qualified” providers. Planned Parenthood operates two facilities in South Carolina and claims to provide a host of services at each facility for individuals who qualify for Medicaid coverage. In what can only be described as the understatement of the year, the Supreme Court noted that these two facilities “also perform abortions.”

             Notably, South Carolina has at least 140 other medical facilities that qualify to provide Medicaid services and at which any South Carolinian can obtain medical care, in addition to a host of private medical facilities that would also accept Medicaid patients throughout the state. In short, removing Planned Parenthood from the list of qualified providers in South Carolina would not even cause a blip on the radar for Medicaid recipients in the state.

             Realizing it could continue to provide quality and widespread care to those who need it, without skipping a beat, South Carolina announced in 2018 that it was removing Planned Parenthood from the list of qualified providers under its Medicaid program. The reason? South Carolina state law prohibits the use of public funds for abortion, and even Medicaid dollars not directly dedicated for abortion indirectly subsidize Planned Parenthood’s abortion activities, which violates state law and the ethical standards of its citizens.

             In other words, South Carolina made the prudent and principled decision that it refused to give its taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to an entity designed for nothing more than the murder of innocent children in the womb. Good for South Carolina. More states should follow its prudent path. So, too, should the United States Congress.

             By excluding abortion-related providers, South Carolina advanced its interests in promoting life and respecting the deeply held convictions of its citizens. This decision isn’t merely a matter of policy preferences; it reflects a bedrock principle: Taxpayer funds must never subsidize activities that violate federal laws and basic human decency. Because Planned Parenthood is not only Abortion, Inc., and the largest murderer that has ever existed (in corporate form) – it is also the purveyor of the most grotesque and illegal trafficking of human body parts imaginable.

             The state plainly has discretion and a compelling interest in defunding such an entity. In fact, Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief in this case noting the law’s language allows for states to disqualify providers that engage in unethical and illegal practices, in which Planned Parenthood has been credibly implicated. As Liberty Counsel’s amicus brief demonstrated, Planned Parenthood officials have been caught on tape discussing the sale of fetal tissue, haggling over baby-body-part prices and explaining how abortion procedures could be altered to ensure intact organs for sale. And, to add insult to injury, some of these conversations took place while the abortionist casually drank wine and ate a salad, as if the discussion of dismembering living children was just business as usual. Such conduct is not only a flagrant violation of federal law but is also simply abhorrent.

             Each state has the right – and indeed a duty – to ensure that its Medicaid dollars do not subsidize an organization engaged in such inhumane and unlawful practices. In fact, given that Medicaid is a taxpayer-funded program, public trust in its integrity is paramount. South Carolina has determined that funneling public funds to Planned Parenthood – an entity implicated in the unlawful sale of fetal tissue – undermines the program’s integrity and betrays the trust of the citizens who fund it.

             South Carolina reserves the right to ensure that its citizens’ taxpayer dollars are not distributed to organizations with a moral compass so lacking that it permits them to dismember living children for profit and describe it to others as if the subject of their abhorrent, grotesque and unlawful practices was not another living human being. One would search in vain for a more compelling reason to exclude an organization from Medicaid’s program.

             The Supreme Court’s ruling in Medina empowers other states to also cut off Planned Parenthood funding. Planned Parenthood is undeserving of taxpayer funds, and states now have a potent weapon in their arsenal to defund Abortion, Inc.

             Disqualifying Planned Parenthood as a qualified Medicaid provider would be a significant blow to the abortion giant and deprive it of essential taxpayer-funded financial calories. Then, if Congress would follow the lead of South Carolina and deprive Planned Parenthood of federal tax dollars,* perhaps we could impose on it the same fate it has unconscionably imposed on millions of babies. Starve the beast – defund Planned Parenthood.

*Life Advocacy Briefing editor’s note: This appears to be the action taken by the Senate and House in the recently enacted budget bill, but its prohibition is limited to one year. Future action is required to permanently disqualify Planned Parenthood as a recipient of taxpayer dollars. And such action is also required on a state-by-state basis to fully cleanse the Medicaid program of the corruption Planned Parenthood funding represents.

More Unfinished Business

June 30, 2025, The Washington Stand commentary by Family Research Council president Tony Perkins

             Last week marked the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision, which overturned the infamous Roe v. Wade ruling of 1973. For nearly 50 years, Roe imposed abortion on demand through the entirety of pregnancy, bypassing the democratic process and silencing the will of the people in all 50 states.

             Contrary to the Left’s narrative, Dobbs did not ban abortion. It returned the authority to regulate abortion to the people and their elected representatives. As a result, 41 states have enacted laws offering varying degrees of protection for the unborn. Thirteen of those states have adopted strong pro-life protections that affirm the sanctity of human life.

             And yet, despite these significant policy gains, abortion rates have actually risen since Dobbs. Yes, risen.

             While abortion advocates continue to claim that women have lost access, the abortion industry’s own numbers tell a very different story. According to the Guttmacher Institute, formerly the research arm of Planned Parenthood, abortions have increased by 12% since 2020, climbing from 930,000 to over 1 million in each of the past two years.

             What’s driving this surge? The kill pill.

             Today, chemical abortions make up more than 63% of all abortions in the United States. That number continues to rise, thanks to a Biden-era policy that remains in effect, which is basically nullifying pro-life laws of many states.

             In April of 2021, under the guise of Covid, the Biden FDA removed long-standing safety protocols for mifepristone – including the requirement that a woman had to see a medical provider before receiving the drug. These safeguards had been in place for over two decades to detect life-threatening conditions like ectopic pregnancy and to ensure informed consent.

             But the Biden Administration didn’t stop there. After Dobbs, in homage to the abortion industry, the Biden Administration directed the Dept. of Justice to issue a legally flawed opinion, stating that the Comstock Act, a federal law banning the mailing of items intended to be used in an abortion, does not apply to the abortion pill. This unprecedented interpretation opened the floodgates. Today, an estimated 8,000 or more abortion pills are mailed each month into states that have enacted pro-life laws.

             The consequences are dangerous. A study of insurance data found that nearly 11% of women who take the abortion pill experienced serious complications requiring emergency room treatment.

             And there are other harms. In Louisiana, a mother and a doctor from New York were indicted for illegally obtaining abortion pills from this New York doctor and administering them to her under-age daughter. New York has refused to extradite the doctor.

              A separate study reveals even widespread harms from the abortion pill. Tons of aborted fetal remains in pharmaceutical waste from abortion pills are entering and contaminating US waterways each year, including drinking water, threatening both public health and environmental safety.

             Unless the Trump Administration reverses this reckless Biden-era policy and conducts a full safety review of mifepristone, pro-life laws will remain largely symbolic. Lives will remain at risk, including the unborn, their mothers and our broader society.

             Without action, the hard-won victory of Dobbs will be rendered meaningless. The Trump Administration must end these Biden-era policies to stand with us for Life.

Wisdom from the Great Communicator

EXCERPT #10 from Abortion & the Conscience of the Nation, 1983 treatise by then-President Ronald Reagan, published in Human Life Review, then as a hardcover book from Thomas Nelson Publishers

             The case against abortion does not rest here, however, for medical practice confirms at every step the correctness of these moral sensibilities. Modern medicine treats the unborn child as a patient. Medical pioneers have made great breakthroughs in treating the unborn – for genetic problems, vitamin deficiencies, irregular heart rhythms, and other medical conditions. Who can forget George Will’s moving account of the little boy who underwent brain surgery six times during the nine weeks before he was born? Who is the patient if not that tiny unborn human being who can feel pain when he or she is approached by doctors who come to kill rather than to cure?

Senate Voting Record

Murray Amendment to HR-1 to Strike Provision Barring Planned Parenthood $ – Failed 49-51 – June 30, 2025 (Democrats in italics; “Independents” marked “I”)

Voting “no”/pro-Life: Britt & Tuberville/AL, Sullivan/AK, Boozman & Cotton/AR, Moody & Scott/FL, Crapo & Risch/ID, Banks & Young/IN, Ernst & Grassley/IA, Marshall & Moran/KS, McConnell & Paul/KY, Cassidy & Kennedy/LA, Hyde-Smith & Wicker/MS, Hawley & Schmitt/MO, Daines & Sheehy/MT, Fischer & Ricketts/NE, Budd & Tillis/NC, Cramer & Hoeven/ND, Husted & Moreno/OH, Lankford & Mullin/OK, McCormick/PA, Graham & Scott/SC, Rounds & Thune/SD, Blackburn & Hagerty/TN, Cornyn & Cruz/TX, Curtis & Lee/UT, Capito & Justice/WV, Johnson/WI, Barrasso & Lummis/WY.

Voting “yes”/anti-Life: Murkowski/AK, Gallego & Kelly/AZ, Padilla & Schiff/CA, Bennet & Hickenlooper/CO, Blumenthal & Murphy/CT, Blunt-Rochester & Coons/DE, Ossoff & Warnock/GA, Hirono & Schatz/HI, Duckworth & Durbin/IL, Collins & King(I)/ME, Alsobrooks & VanHollen/MD, Markey & Warren/MA, Peters & Slotkin/MI, Klobuchar & Smith/MN, Cortez-Masto & Rosen/NV, Hassan & Shaheen/NH, Booker & Kim/NJ, Heinrich & Lujan/NM, Gillibrand & Schumer/NY, Merkley & Wyden/OR, Fetterman/PA, Reed & Whitehouse/RI, Sanders(I) & Welch/VT, Kaine & Warner/VA, Cantwell & Murray/WA, Baldwin/WI.