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CNA Staff, Jul 1, 2025 / 14:17 pm
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.
Kate Quiñones is a staff writer for Catholic News Agency and a fellow of the College Fix. She has been published by the Wall Street Journal, the Denver Catholic Register, and CatholicVote, and she graduated from Hillsdale College. She lives in Colorado with her husband.
