For decades, the pro-life movement has fought tirelessly to protect the unborn and redirect taxpayer dollars away from abortion providers. This week, pro-lifers achieved a landmark legislative victory that marks a turning point in that struggle. With the passage of the “One Big Beautiful” budget bill, federal Medicaid funds will no longer flow to clinics and providers that offer abortions—including Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business.
A Strategic and Moral Milestone
While the Hyde Amendment has long prohibited federal Medicaid dollars from directly paying for elective abortions, Planned Parenthood has continued to receive hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds for other services. But money is fungible. These federal subsidies have, in practice, helped sustain and expand the abortion industry. By covering overhead, staffing, and infrastructure, government funds have indirectly supported the very procedures that the Hyde Amendment sought to exclude.
That ends now.
This year's budget bill closes that loophole, barring federal Medicaid reimbursements from going to any abortion-providing organization—regardless of the service rendered. This is a bold step forward, a policy rooted in both fiscal responsibility and moral clarity.
Momentum Built Over Decades
This victory didn’t happen overnight. In the 1990s and early 2000s, efforts to defund Planned Parenthood were often dismissed as fringe or symbolic. But courageous investigative work—like the undercover videos produced by Live Action’s Lila Rose—exposed the truth about the organization’s internal practices and ethics. Those revelations galvanized grassroots energy and drew much-needed national attention to the issue.
In 2015, Congress passed legislation to defund Planned Parenthood, only to be vetoed by President Obama. In 2017, President Trump came closer, but procedural hurdles in the Senate brought those efforts to a halt. Now, in 2025, with pro-life majorities in the House and Senate and a pro-life president in office, the goal has finally been realized—even if only for one year.
Even One Year Matters
Some have expressed disappointment that the defunding language only applies for a single year. But this is more than symbolic. Planned Parenthood has already begun shuttering clinics—in South Dakota, Iowa, Manhattan, and Cleveland. Nationally, the number of facilities has dropped from around 750 fifteen years ago to under 600 today. Without guaranteed federal funding, the organization faces mounting pressure to consolidate or close more locations. When the government withdraws its financial endorsement, others follow.
According to Planned Parenthood itself, as many as 200 of its locations could close as a direct result of this legislation. That’s not just political progress. That’s lives saved, communities changed, and women redirected toward life-affirming alternatives.
What Comes Next
The pro-life movement has always known that laws alone do not change hearts, but good laws can save lives and set the stage for cultural transformation. With federal dollars cut off from the abortion industry, there is an unprecedented opportunity to reallocate those resources toward real women's health care—care that supports both mother and child.
We must now invest in pregnancy resource centers, community clinics, adoption services, and maternity care programs. This is our moment not only to dismantle a broken system but to build a better one in its place.
A Moment to Celebrate—and Refocus
July 3, 2025, may well be remembered as the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood’s dominance in the abortion industry. As Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America president Marjorie Dannenfelser put it, “It’s the biggest victory since the Dobbs decision.”
But this is no time to grow complacent. The fight continues, both in Congress and in our communities. Pro-life legislators, advocates, and citizens must keep the pressure on—pushing to make the one-year defunding permanent, challenging pro-abortion narratives in the public square, and supporting every woman who feels alone in a crisis pregnancy.
Because every life matters.
And this week, we moved one giant step closer to a culture and country where every life is protected, cherished, and given the chance to flourish.
