CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 14:17 pm (CNA).
Senate Republicans on Tuesday passed President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” budget measure, including a provision to defund Planned Parenthood for a year, which pro-life advocates are lauding as a “major step” toward permanently defunding the abortion giant.
The bill was originally set to defund Planned Parenthood for a 10-year period. Last week, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough disqualified more than a dozen provisions in the bill, including the portion defunding abortion providers, forcing Republicans to rework the language of the bill.
The Senate on Tuesday passed the reworked bill after a tiebreaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance. Three Republican lawmakers — Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, and Rand Paul of Kentucky — opposed the bill on various grounds.
The reconciliation bill, which includes several spending cuts and tax breaks, still needs to go back to the House for a final round of voting.
The Hyde Amendment prohibits direct federal funding for abortions, though advocates have argued that the federal government has long subsidized abortion by proxy by providing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual funding for Planned Parenthood. The funding is nominally for non-abortion services.
While the defunding period is only a 10th of what pro-life lawmakers initially planned, it would still be significant progress, pro-life advocates argued on Tuesday.
Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, called the bill a “small but important victory,” noting that it “cuts an estimated $500 million from Planned Parenthood and abortion vendors,” though she acknowledged it was “for one year only.”
“This proves what we’ve said all along: Congress can cut Planned Parenthood’s funding — and they just did,” Hawkins said in a Tuesday statement on X. “The moral obligation is clear: If we can do it for one year, we must do it for good.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser called the passage “a crucial victory in the fight against abortion, America’s leading cause of death, and an industry that endangers women and girls.”
“The greatest pro-life victory since Dobbs is within reach!” she added.
Live Action President Lila Rose on Tuesday called the measure “a start but not enough.”
“The House should restore the 10-year defund they already passed,” she said.
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What about the millions losing their health insurance via cuts to Medicaid? What about cuts to nutrition programs like SNAP? This article is a joke. It looks like a White House press release. Why was this poor excuse of journalism even published? Anything to make Trump look good. Pathetic.
I lost my excellent, private insurance some 15 years ago because of Obama, who lied about his vaunted healthcare fix. Spare me the tears.
Which is why we need one payer health care like other wealthy countries. Our for profit health care makes money for CEO’s and billionaires but fails millions of Americans.
Do you actually think this bill is a good thing? You seem intelligent and not a MAGA sycophant,so what’s your response to this bill? Or is anything Trump does wonderful?
Please enlighten us.
If you’ve noticed what’s been happening in nations with nationalized healthcare & ageing populations like the UK & Canada, there’s growing support for euthanasia. Only so many resources are available & when a country’s total population percentage becomes increasingly elderly, more resources will be used & more tax dollars required. That’s not a winning proposition when the workforce shrinks in proportion.
It’s a good illustration why we need more young immigrants but even that may not be enough to save things like Medicare. Social Security is expected to not be able to pay out benefits in full within less than 8 years.
The cuts to Medicaid apply to illegals who should not be getting healthcare on the taxpayers’ dime. It’s the right call.
Keep drinking the MAGA Kool Aid.
It has nothing to do with that. It’s about fiscal responsibility and economic justice. If you are breaking the law to be here illegally, you shouldn’t be eligible for handouts of any kind. That’s common sense.