The Trump administration signaled it would provide another year of Title X grant money to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, the day before those funds were set to expire. The move prompted condemnation from leaders of pro-life groups.
Title X grant funds, part of a federal program that subsidizes family planning, are provided for up to five years to eligible groups. The fourth year's funding concludes March 31, and the fifth round of funding starts April 1.
The Trump administration previously froze about $27.5 million in federal family planning grants to groups including Planned Parenthood as part of its probe into diversity, equity and inclusion programs, sometimes referred to as DEI, within federal agencies. However, it quietly released Title X family planning funds to Planned Parenthood in December, prompting the American Civil Liberties Union to drop its lawsuit that sought to restore the funds.
In a written statement provided to OSV News, Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the Trump administration "has issued the fifth and final year of Title X grants that were locked in place during the Biden presidency."
"The Administration faced significant legal challenges in stopping any of these dollars from going out," Desai said. He also pointed to the law barring the use of Title X funds for abortion, and argued the Trump administration "remains committed to realigning the Title X program with the President’s pro-life and pro-family agenda going forward."
He said, "HHS will soon be releasing a new Title X funding opportunity for the next five-year funding cycle that prioritizes life and promotes the pro-family agenda."
But Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a March 31 statement the decision was "an inexplicable slap in the face to the pro-life GOP base."
"Funding Planned Parenthood means propping up a business whose main purpose is to end the lives of innocent unborn children," she said.
She described the move as the latest in a string of actions out of the Trump administration that "amounts to political suicide" for the Republican Party with respect to the pro-life movement.
"Three out of four GOP base voters support defunding Planned Parenthood. One third of those voters say they'd be less enthusiastic about voting this November if the GOP abandons pro-life policies," she said.
Dannenfelser called the Trump administration's move on Title X "a clear abandonment," pointing out the first Trump administration issued its Protect Life Rule "to stop Title X funding of Planned Parenthood."
Just days before, a group of senators who oppose abortion, led by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., urged the Trump administration to reinstate the Protect Life Rule, arguing the rule "ensured that Title X family planning funds could no longer flow to clinics that perform, promote, or refer for abortions, and required clear physical and financial separation between Title X-funded projects and abortion facilities."
Dannenfelser said the rule "should have been 'Day One' policy in the second administration. Instead, we are 14 months in and this hasn't been prevented."
Dannenfelser also pointed out the Trump administration's Title X decision "comes on the heels of the administration undermining GOP states by allowing the shipping of abortion drugs into their borders, violating their laws."
She referred to the administration's Justice Department asking multiple judges to pause several state lawsuits seeking to roll back Biden administration-era eased restrictions on mifepristone. The drug is commonly used for first trimester abortion, but more recently has been used in some protocols for miscarriage care.
Those moves, Dannenfelser added, also follow upon President Donald Trump's suggestion back in January that the GOP should be "flexible" on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, during negotiations on health care subsidies.
Title X funds represent a small fraction of the taxpayer funds Planned Parenthood receives annually. The group's 2023-2024 annual report showed it received more than $700 million in taxpayer funds -- in the form of government health services reimbursements and grants -- for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2024.
A provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act -- legislation that enacted key items of the president's legislative agenda on issues including taxes and immigration -- eliminated funds for one year for health providers who also perform abortions.
However, that provision, which was embattled in legal challenges for much of the year, is scheduled to expire July 4.
On its website, Planned Parenthood Action Fund said its "health centers are proud to be part of the Title X network."
"Blocking access to quality, affordable sexual and reproductive health services through the Title X program upends the health of Planned Parenthood health center patients and puts lives at grave risk," their website stated.
Jennie Bradley Lichter, president of the March for Life, said in a post on X it was "absolutely maddening" that the Department of Health and Human Services "is continuing to fund an organization whose business model is built on ending human lives, misleading pregnant women into thinking abortion is their only option, and delivering substandard healthcare even in the rare cases when abortion is not involved."
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. funding Planned Parenthood, she argued, "is not, by any stretch of the imagination, Making America Healthy Again."
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, expressed incredulity at the White House's move in a statement: "So let me get this straight, to comply with regulations, Title X funds would go to all of the abortion vendors who did the paperwork, while we wait for a regulation review."
She referred to the Food and Drug Administration's ongoing review of a Biden-era regulation allowing mifepristone's distribution by mail. The administration has argued the courts should dismiss a series of state lawsuits seeking to ban the practice -- notably Louisiana, Missouri and Florida -- until the FDA completes its review.
Dannenfelsner, Lichter and Hawkins are all Catholic leaders in the pro-life movement.
The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. Since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the church's concern for both mother and child, and called for strengthening social support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.
