Trump Should Reinstate His Protect Life Rule to Completely Defund Planned Parenthood
Progressives have mounted legal challenges in an effort to pressure President Donald Trump’s administration to restore certain federal funds to abortion behemoth Planned Parenthood. According to one report, it worked.
Politico relayed this week that the Trump administration “quietly” permitted Title X federal funding to continue going to Planned Parenthood late last month, allowing the abortion giant to submit reimbursement receipts to the government for birth-control and non-abortion activities for low-income clients. At present, the Hyde Amendment still bars taxpayer dollars from being used to directly pay for abortions, but the Title X funds are still flowing to the nation’s largest abortion company.
Reporters asked the president on Wednesday why the funding had been unfrozen. “I don’t know anything about that,” Trump replied, deferring to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Both Trump and Kennedy told reporters, “I haven’t heard that.”
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The left-wing American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) had previously filed a lawsuit demanding that Planned Parenthood be given access to the Title X funds. On Monday, the ACLU dropped its lawsuit. However, litigation is still ongoing against more stringent measures defunding Planned Parenthood in the president’s signature piece of legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill that was passed by Congress and signed into law by the president last year.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins suggested in a press conference Tuesday that there is a degree of “legal maneuvering there that would put the administration in a stronger position.” FRC’s Senior Director of Government Affairs Quena González told The Washington Stand, “Sure, it’s disappointing any time Planned Parenthood gets taxpayer dollars, and a little concerning given the recent talk of ‘flexibility’ on something as central to the pro-life community as taxpayer funding for abortions.” He continued, “We’ll be watching this closely, for sure. But we are focused at the moment on the talk on Capitol Hill of ‘Reconciliation 2.0,’ which absolutely must defund abortion providers. And we’re hoping that there will be a more serious effort to defund gender transition procedures in reconciliation this time.”
Tom McClusky, director of Government Affairs at CatholicVote and former vice president of Government Affairs at FRC, explained that the Trump administration likely surrendered the funds in a strategic effort to strip even more funding from Planned Parenthood. “They were virtually certain to lose the lawsuit, forcing them to repay the full amount plus interest and cover attorneys’ fees,” McClusky said, according to The Daily Signal. “Even worse, continuing the litigation would have entangled any future funding cuts — which are highly likely under the new regulations — in prolonged court battles before an unsympathetic judge.”
An unnamed former senior Trump administration official agreed with McClusky’s analysis, telling The Daily Signal, “HHS was caught in a tough spot because the judge was almost certainly going to rule against them and they would have had to restore the funding under Biden-era rules, possibly with interest and attorneys’ fees on top for Planned Parenthood.” The official continued, “With the case dismissed, the administration has far greater ability to cut Planned Parenthood funds under Trump-era rules, and that will be the true test of the president’s promise to end taxpayer funding of the abortion industry.”
The Title X funds were originally withheld from Planned Parenthood early last year, before the Trump administration amended 42 U.S. Code Part 300, which deals with “family planning” grants and funding. In other words, the federal funds were originally withheld from Planned Parenthood under rules set by former President Joe Biden, a pro-abortion radical, making the move likely illegal when it was executed. Under the new rules, however, the Trump administration will have greater freedom to potentially strip even more federal funds from the abortion behemoth.
During his first term, Trump instituted the “Protect Life Rule,” which completely barred abortion businesses from accessing Title X funding. Pro-life organizations and leaders have subsequently urged the president to reinstate this rule during his second term. “The Protect Life Rule from the 1st Trump admin stopped Big Abortion businesses from using Title X taxpayer $$ as a slush fund. Biden canceled it. The Trump admin must immediately reinstate it,” SBA Pro-Life America said in a social media statement. McClusky agreed, noting that the controversy over restoring funds to Planned Parenthood could have been avoided entirely if the “Protect Life Rule” were still in effect.
LifeNews Note: S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
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