Pro-Life leaders urge Congress to defund Planned Parenthood as Senate vote nears
Caroline MolloyOn the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt joined dozens of leading pro-life advocates in a nationwide webcast rally urging Congress to strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding.
The Tuesday evening event, organized by the Life Leadership Conference, featured more than 30 prominent voices in the pro-life movement, including Students for Life’s Kristan Hawkins, Live Action’s Lila Rose, and former Planned Parenthood employee turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson.
The rally came as Congress prepares to vote on a sweeping reconciliation package — dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” — that includes a decade-long provision to defund Planned Parenthood.
“Taxpayer dollars should never fund the destruction of innocent human life, yet every year Planned Parenthood receives $800 million in taxpayer funds,” Reinhardt said during the event. “And they perform around 40% of abortions in the US. Nearly half.”
“That’s not just morally outrageous. That’s fiscally outrageous,” she added. “At a time when Americans are asked to tighten their belts, we are funding — to the tune of 2 million dollars a day — an organization whose business model profits from pain.”
Reinhardt, named CatholicVote president earlier this month, argued that federal dollars should instead support life-affirming alternatives such as maternal care, adoption support, and ethical research.
“Our federal budget really needs to reflect the dignity of every person and the economic reality that we don’t have enough to invest in things that we want to invest in, things that make our culture better,” she said.
Speakers also spotlighted Planned Parenthood’s growing involvement in so-called “gender-affirming care.”
Last month, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) identified Planned Parenthood as a “leading provider” of cross-sex hormones to children. Meanwhile, Live Action’s latest undercover investigation exposed facilities dispensing these drugs to children without therapy, in-person evaluations, or parental consent.
“Planned Parenthood does not care about children inside or outside the womb,” Live Action’s Lila Rose said Tuesday evening.
Several speakers also called attention to the widespread harm done to women by the nation’s largest abortion provider, as documented by a February New York Times exposé.
The Times report revealed serious safety lapses, unqualified staff, botched procedures, unsanitary conditions, and dangerous delays at multiple Planned Parenthood facilities nationwide, CatholicVote previously reported.
Despite mounting concerns, Planned Parenthood reported performing over 400,000 abortions in its latest annual report — a devastating increase of 9,515 from the previous year. Simultaneously, the group’s taxpayer funding rose by over 13%, reaching $792.2 million.
