WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — House Speaker Mike Johnson supports defunding abortion giant Planned Parenthood.
Speaker Johnson made the remarks recently on Fox News, in response to a question about cutting funding to both the abortion vendor and PBS.
“Under President Trump, we will take a blowtorch to the administrative state and reduce the size and scope of government,” Johnson wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Two specific examples: Planned Parenthood and PBS are in congressional control. Are you planning to axe both of those?” Fox News host Martha MacCallum asked Johnson on Wednesday.
“I would like to. That’s for sure,” he said. However, he said “we have got to build consensus to have the votes to do that.”
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy both suggested defunding Planned Parenthood as part of their efforts to eliminate government waste through the Department of Government Efficiency.
In a November Wall Street Journal op-ed, the duo said the federal expenditures they plan on cutting include the “nearly $300 million” dedicated “to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood,” as LifeSiteNews reported.
Under President Trump, we will take a blowtorch to the administrative state and reduce the size and scope of government.
House and Senate Republicans look forward to hosting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy tomorrow to discuss how the Department of Government Efficiency can help… pic.twitter.com/6GKbga0sCU
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) December 5, 2024
In his first term, President Donald Trump never fully defunded Planned Parenthood. However, he did deprive them of tens of millions of dollars by prohibiting abortion vendors from receiving Title X “family planning” funds.
While Trump and running mate JD Vance said they want abortion drugs legal and want the issue of killing preborn babies left up to the state, the campaign appeared to support defunding 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 abortion,” Vance told the media after a rally in October.
Planned Parenthood receives roughly $592 million from U.S. taxpayers in the form of Medicaid reimbursements, government grants, and other programs each year. It commits on average more than 365,000 abortions annually, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, with less than one percent of them being “late-term abortions” at 21 weeks or later during pregnancy.
Groups including Students for Life Action have called on Trump to “debar and defund” Planned Parenthood, laying out a variety of reasons they could be removed from eligibility to receive government funding.
“The Pro-Life Generation will be calling on the Trump Administration to investigate, suspend, debar, and defund Planned Parenthood,” Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy, wrote for SFL Action. “No matter how you feel about a business that ends life for money, their troubled history is reason enough for taxpayers to say, YOU’RE FIRED.”