Planned Parenthood officials worry that Congress will slash half a billion dollars from their federal funding next year, following the ascension of President-elect Donald Trump to the White House.
Planned Parenthood and its allies are gearing up for a fight on Capitol Hill, facing a GOP controlled Congress for the first time in 10 years, a Republican president, and a vacant Supreme Court seat.
"Obviously we are doing everything we can through advocacy and everything else to make sure we can continue to serve patients," Erica Sackin, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood, told The Washington Post. "But at the end of the day, this is a fight of a scale that we haven't seen before and we need to be realistic about how much is at stake."
Federal funding makes up more than 40 percent of Planned Parenthood's budget, mostly from Medicaid and Title X. That money cannot go towards abortion procedures, but opponents say the funding indirectly supports abortions.
"It is time that taxpayers are taken off the hook for supporting an organization that supports the killing of innocent children," Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said, according to the Post.
Trump vowed to appoint a pro-life judge to the highest court when he assumes the presidency, and he pledged to signed a measure that would defund Planned Parenthood, which Congress attempted in 2015, only for President Barack Obama to veto it.
"The entire movement is poised for a victory," Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of abortion-opposition group Susan B. Anthony List, told Politico in late November. "We have every assurance [from congressional leaders] that it's going to happen. Nobody is saying 'whether,' the question is 'when.'"
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.