For pro-life organizations, the clock is ticking.

Just weeks after Planned Parenthood became eligible once again to receive Medicaid reimbursements, some of the nation's largest pro-life groups are urging congressional Republicans to restore the funding ban before lawmakers finalize a new federal budget.

Their message is simple: Don't let this become another promise that fades away.

The one-year restriction on Planned Parenthood funding expired July 4 after being included in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill. Since then, the nation's largest abortion provider has once again been able to receive taxpayer dollars through Medicaid.

Now, as Congress works through a $95 billion budget package, pro-life leaders are growing increasingly frustrated that another effort to defund Planned Parenthood isn't part of the latest proposal.

At a press conference Thursday, leaders from several organizations said they're worried Republican lawmakers are letting one of the movement's biggest priorities slip to the back burner.

Kristi Hamrick, vice president of media and policy at Students for Life, said lawmakers are now dealing with a problem that could have been avoided.

"It was a Herculean effort to get the funding [blocked] for one year in the Big Beautiful Bill to begin with. The meetings for that effort started the Friday after the Tuesday election," Hamrick said.

She said pro-life advocates warned lawmakers at the time that shortening the original House proposal from 10 years to one year would eventually force Congress right back into the same fight.

"One of the profound disappointments is that if the Senate would have put the House language in to sign for ten years... we would not be having this conversation," Hamrick said. "And we were very clear at that time, like you're making a mistake, both politically, certainly morally, but also politically."

Students for Life Action was one of several organizations that signed a letter this spring asking Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson to include a new 10-year funding prohibition in this year's budget reconciliation package.

So far, that hasn't happened.

The budget resolution released this week doesn't include language cutting off Planned Parenthood funding, although negotiations are still underway.

Instead, Republican leaders have spent much of their attention on other major issues, including election security, defense spending and agricultural funding.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington acknowledged that Planned Parenthood simply wasn't at the top of the list this time around.

"We had the time, the luxury of time, in the One Big, Beautiful Bill, to work through that and get at least a partial win for the pro-life movement. I was very happy about that," Arrington said.

But he said Congress eventually ran out of runway.

"We got to a point where the clock was just, was what it was... I've been talking about this for months, and, you know, there's just been a lot of other things... we as a unified Republican leadership team have had to deal with."

That explanation isn't satisfying pro-life groups.

Hamrick called the omission of the Planned Parenthood language from the current budget proposal an "extreme disappointment."

She argued that Republicans shouldn't treat pro-life issues as secondary, even while tackling other priorities.

"It wasn't a winning coalition until we looked at that pro-family, pro-life, pro-country, pro-security agenda," Hamrick said.

"But what's interesting is the pro-life movement isn't saying get rid of those issues to only do ours. What we're saying is don't neglect a foundational issue to this working coalition."

The letter sent to congressional leaders argues that extending the funding ban for the full 10 years allowed under reconciliation rules would create stability and keep future administrations from restoring funding through executive action.

"Extending the prohibition for the maximum ten-year window permitted under reconciliation rules would provide long-term policy stability, protect taxpayers, and prevent future administrations from restoring funding through executive action alone," the letter states.

Last year's House bill originally included a 10-year prohibition before Senate rules forced lawmakers to shorten it to one year.

Whether Republicans revisit the issue before the budget is finalized remains an open question.

A spokesman for Speaker Johnson told reporters House negotiators remain focused on securing elections, strengthening the military and helping farmers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune's office did not respond before publication.

The debate comes as Planned Parenthood continues to receive substantial federal funding through government health programs.

According to the organization's annual reports cited by pro-life groups, Planned Parenthood performed nearly 450,000 abortions during its 2024-2025 reporting year while receiving more than $830 million annually in federal funding.

Those numbers continue to fuel calls from pro-life organizations that argue taxpayers shouldn't be subsidizing the country's largest abortion provider.

Andrea Trudden, vice president of communications and marketing at Heartbeat International, said many pro-life supporters expected to see more movement after the start of the new administration.

Instead, she said, progress has slowed.

"It is definitely a tension point because again, there were so many pro-life, pro-family efforts right at the beginning of the new administration, but since then it has kind of gone quiet," Trudden said.

Heartbeat International, which operates a global network of pregnancy resource centers, says it regularly hears from women who say they're being pressured to take abortion pills.

According to Trudden, some women have called while hiding in bathrooms because they feared boyfriends or parents wouldn't let them leave until they took the medication.

She said lawmakers who want to promote stronger families shouldn't overlook those experiences.

"Our politicians look at the budget, and they look at what is having the most impact on families," Trudden said. "If they are looking for a pro-family administration and a pro-family culture, then this is something that they really need to seriously look at for supporting continuously."

Pro-life groups have also criticized the Trump administration's FDA for approving a second generic version of the abortion pill and for keeping in place a Biden-era policy that removed the requirement for women to receive the drug in person.

For Hamrick, the larger issue is whether Republicans will continue treating abortion as a defining issue instead of just another line item in budget negotiations.

"We need to be a culture of life and not a federally funded, organized culture of death," she said.

She closed with a criticism aimed squarely at her own party.

"What I think is ironic is that we, in the pro-life movement, have to remind the GOP of this again, and on the Democratic side, they never seem to need a reminder from the abortion lobby how to go all in on abortion," Hamrick said. "But we do have to often remind the GOP that they are a party of life."