A pro-life legal organization is urging House Republicans to refuse to advance a federal budget package unless it includes provisions to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
Americans United for Life (AUL), joined by Family Policy Alliance, sent a letter April 24 to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and GOP leadership calling for an extension of existing federal restrictions on Medicaid funding for abortion providers, according to an AUL press release. The current restriction on funding for abortion providers was enacted under the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” funding package in 2025 and is set to expire on July 4.
The letter comes shortly after the Senate voted early April 23 to advance a budget blueprint that could allocate up to $70 billion for immigration enforcement. The measure, S. Con. Res. 33, now heads to the House. Its passage followed an overnight “vote-a-rama,” during which lawmakers rejected several amendments on various issues. As Zeale News previously reported, one of the amendments that failed was a pro-life measure filed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that sought to block federal funding for abortion providers.
“As the House takes up S. Con. Res. 33, it is imperative that the moratorium be extended,” AUL said in its letter. “Failure to act would be akin to taking the first few doses of antibiotics but neglecting to finish the regimen — the disease is likely to return stronger and more virulent than before, rendering the initial treatment practically useless.”
AUL officials argued that the 2025 funding restrictions demonstrated the effectiveness of the budget reconciliation process and established it as an “appropriate and proven vehicle” to ensure taxpayers are not forced to fund abortions.
The letter noted that in Planned Parenthood’s latest annual report — reflecting fiscal data from before the “One Big Beautiful Bill” restrictions took effect — the organization reported receiving more than $830 million in taxpayer funding. Since the moratorium began, at least 20 of the abortion giant’s centers have closed, according to AUL.
“Extending defunding in the current reconciliation bill is the only assured path to preventing abortion providers from regaining access to federal taxpayer dollars before the original one-year freeze expires this coming July,” AUL Government Affairs Director Bradley Kehr said. “Delayed pursuit of defunding in a rumored third reconciliation this fall undermines the historic advances to liberate the American tax dollar from the abortion industry under the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Sarah Zagorski, AUL’s senior director of public relations and communications, said continuing to defund abortion providers will “crumble” the abortion industry and ensure that it will “no longer be able to harm women and preborn children.”