(LifeSiteNews) — Planned Parenthood has thrown in the towel on its efforts to preserve its primary federal funding, voluntarily dismissing its lawsuit against the defunding provision of the Trump administration’s signature legislation.
Last July, President Donald Trump signed into law his controversial “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB), a wide-ranging policy package that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to any that provides abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life.
That and other cuts have significantly impacted the bottom line of Planned Parenthood, which is currently in court to try to stop the federal government from cutting it off. According to Operation Rescue, 54 abortion facilities shut their doors in 2024, 36 of which were Planned Parenthood locations.
Planned Parenthood sued, alleging that even though it was not specifically named in the BBB, it was effectively the only organization that qualified under the bill’s language and that losing that money would cause “devastating” layoffs and location closures. For several months, the defunding provision repeatedly cycled between temporary injunctions by District Judge Indira Talwani and reversal by other judges, with the First Circuit Court of Appeals reversing her yet again last month.
On January 30, Planned Parenthood filed a dismissal in the case, later explaining that the “goal of this lawsuit has always been to help Planned Parenthood patients get the care they deserve from their trusted provider. Based on the 1st Circuit’s decision, it is clear that this lawsuit is no longer the best way to accomplish that goal.”
“The American people do not want their tax dollars propping up the abortion industry,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Erik Baptist responded. “This legal action should never have happened in the first place, and now we are assured that Planned Parenthood will not bypass the people’s choice to protect taxpayer funding. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed last year that states have the right to fund real care and exclude organizations like Planned Parenthood that profit off abortion, and we are glad to see the federal government following suit. Alliance Defending Freedom will continue to stand against any attempts by the abortion giant to force Americans to fund dangerous procedures.”
The news means the most consequential of the second Trump administration’s pro-life actions will remain in effect at least until July, at which point Congress will presumably consider legislation to renew the defunding. But completely and permanently defunding the abortion giant remains up in the air.
Within weeks of returning to office, Trump began enforcing the Hyde amendment, which bans direct federal funding of most abortions; reinstated the Mexico City Policy that forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for elective abortions abroad; and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending.
However, Trump recently revived pro-life worries when he told a gathering of House Republicans “you’ve got to be a little flexible on Hyde” for the sake of reaching a deal in the narrowly divided Congress on health care reform, an issue which has picked up steam in recent weeks due to the recent expiration of subsidies under the so-called Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare). The declaration sparked alarm and protest from pro-life leaders and activists, many of whom framed Hyde as one of the federal government’s most basic and non-negotiable pro-life obligations.
Asked about the comment the next day, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied any change in position and touted the second Trump administration’s record so far of opposing taxpayer funding of abortion but did not specifically rule out some sort of compromise on Hyde in healthcare negotiations, leaving the controversy unresolved.
The administration has also recently fielded pro-life confusion and discontent over another subset of tax dollars recently restored to the abortion giant. Last year, the federal government froze $120 million in federal Title X “family-planning” grants to organizations suspected of not complying with the administration’s executive orders against involvement with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The move did not specifically target Planned Parenthood or abortion but covered approximately $20 million received by Planned Parenthood locations across a dozen states.
Last month, the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) withdrew a lawsuit against the move after U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro confirmed in court that a review had found the affected organizations were not in violation of the DEI rule, and the funding had therefore been restored. The retreat did not affect the majority of the Trump administration’s abortion defunding actions but generated alarming headlines and questions.
White House officials later said the DEI-based Title IX block simply could not have survived the lawsuit under the current rules, but the grants would be subject to unspecified “new regulatory requirements that began in October,” and that “HHS plans to update the Biden-era regulations governing the Title X program to ensure program integrity and reflect Trump administration priorities.”
Presumably the issue could be rendered moot with the reintroduction of the Protect Life Rule, a key policy of Trump’s first term that required “clear financial and physical separation between Title X-funded projects and programs or facilities where abortion is a method of family planning,” and banned “referral for abortion as a method of family planning.” It reduced Planned Parenthood’s annual funding by almost $60 million and disqualified the abortion giant from Title X regardless of its DEI policies, lack thereof, or any other unrelated criteria. Pro-life activists have called on Trump to bring back the rule.