TOPLINE:
The One Big Beautiful Bill blocked abortion providers from receiving Medicaid through July 4, 2026. Although temporary, defunding Planned Parenthood was a praiseworthy step in the long struggle to end federal funding for abortion.
Majority of Country Opposes Taxpayer Funding for Abortion
- 54% of Americans oppose using tax dollars to pay for abortion (Marist, 2026).
- 81% of Republicans and 52% of Independents oppose tax-funded abortions.
- While a majority of Democrats now support federal subsidies for abortion, this is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Until OBBB, Taxpayers Continued to Fund Some Abortions
- After the Roe v. Wade (1973) decision, the federal government was directly financing around 300,000 abortions a year.
- The Hyde Amendment (first enacted in 1976) prohibited most direct federal funding for abortion but did not prevent taxpayer dollars from going to abortion providers through Medicaid, Title X, and other federal programs.
- In 2007, Congressman Mike Pence introduced the first bill to stop abortion clinics from receiving any Title X money, even indirectly (eventually introducing legislation to bar abortionists from federal funding completely).
- A decade later, those legislative ambitions came full circle as a freshly inaugurated Vice President Pence cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate allowing states to defund Title X.
- Even still, Title X only accounted for 13%of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding. Almost all the rest came from Medicaid.
OBBB Ended Federal Funding for Abortion through Medicaid for One Year
- Previous efforts to fully eliminate federal funding for abortion have always failed.
- While the initial version of OBBB (blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding for 10 years) failed, a shorter, one-year version passed muster.
- Roughly $792 million in federal funds are no longer flowing to abortion providers.
- Scores of Planned Parenthood clinics have closed as a result of OBBB.
Where Can I Find Changes?
OBBB Section 71113.
BOTTOMLINE:
Congress must act to ensure that Medicaid funding for abortions doesn’t restart on July 4, 2026.
This memo is part of the One Big Beautiful Booklet, a collection of more than 60 memos that examine and summarize the major aspects of the One Big Beautiful Bill – the signature legislative achievement of President Trump and the 119th Congress.
