HHS Funds Deliberate Parenthood, Guarantees Overhaul Subsequent Yr

Planned Parenthood is aborting more babies than ever. Yet, the abortion giant continues to receive more taxpayer cash than ever, including the continuation of the Title X grants sanctioned by the Biden administration right under the current administration’s nose.

The Trump administration decided at the end of March to allow the flow of “family planning” taxpayer dollars to flow to abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood. This refusal to cut off the last of the Biden-era funding for the nation’s largest abortion network, which dedicates a majority of its services to abortions, not prenatal oversight or preventative care like cancer screenings, was not taken lightly by pro-life groups.

Live Action called for the decision to be immediately reversed. SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser dubbed it “a clear abandonment” and noted that the first Trump administration “enacted the Protect Life Rule to stop Title X funding of Planned Parenthood.”

“It should have been ‘Day One’ policy in the second administration. Instead, we are 14 months in and this hasn’t been prevented,” Dannenfelser added.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., also penned a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to express “alarm” at the continued subsidization of abortion businesses.

“During your confirmation hearing last January, I asked if you would reinstate the first Trump
Administration’s rule preventing Title X funding for entities that perform abortions,” Hawley wrote in his April 2 letter. “To your credit, you answered unequivocally: ‘yes.’ But to my knowledge, no rulemaking process appears to have yet begun. And taxpayer money continues to flow to abortion providers.”

Despite widespread skepticism about the Trump administration’s motives, this latest decision is not the end of the Title X funding fight. In fact, a new HHS funding notice for 2027 suggests the Trump administration is willing to flip the taxpayer-funded family planning model on its head and put an end to the subsidized promotion of abortion and harmful contraception.

Funding Flip Flop

The 2019 “Protect Life Rule” Dannenfelser and Hawley referenced barred Title X recipients from using tax dollars to “perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” To avoid complying with the mandated financial and physical separation of federal funds from their abortion activities, baby-killing businesses like Planned Parenthood opted out.

Mere months into Joe Biden’s presidency, HHS proposed a rule that not only reversed the Trump-era prohibition on taxpayer-funded abortions but also demanded Title X providers offer abortion counseling and referrals against their constitutionally-protected conscience objections for the next five years.

Instead of restoring the rule that would once again put Planned Parenthood under pressure to separate its abortion activities from taxpayer funding, the second Trump administration attempted to freeze grants to Title X recipients over “possible violations” of the president’s diversity, inclusion, and equity discrimination executive order. The American Civil Liberties Union jumped to sue the administration over the financial withholding but saw the case dismissed when HHS quietly released the funds in December.

Trump and Congress partnered to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included provisions to defund Planned Parenthood, but only managed to secure the financial starve for one year. So the Trump administration will honor the “fifth and final year of Title X grants that were locked in place during the Biden presidency” after it “faced significant legal challenges in stopping any of these dollars from going out.”

The newly released HHS budget and notice of funding opportunity, however, indicates a strong pivot away from the contraception and abortion activities often associated with Title X recipients starting in 2027.

A Promising Pivot

The notice emphasizes that, beginning in April 2027, “None of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.”

The current Title X program handbook permits and encourages grantees to promote “all Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved contraceptive products.” The new HHS plan, however, signals a move away from “overreliance on pharmaceutical and surgical treatments” toward “body literacy” and less invasive natural family planning methods.

“We expect applicants to demonstrate how their Title X projects will integrate noninvasive, evidence-based practices that promote health literacy, fertility awareness, and reproductive health without unnecessary medicalization or symptom suppression,” the notice states, noting that “the most common reason women reported discontinuing [birth control] use related to dissatisfaction was side effects.”

HHS also repeatedly hinted at the creation a “a new Title X funding opportunity for the next five-year funding cycle that prioritizes life and promotes the pro-family agenda.”

Asking pro-lifers to be patient while hundreds of thousands of babies lives are at risk, especially when they’ve seen little to no movement on the administration’s promises to investigate and act on the dangerous abortion pill, is risky. But apparently it’s a risk the administration is willing to take, so long as it’s followed by “realigning the Title X program with the president’s pro-life and pro-family agenda going forward.”

Jordan Boyd is an award-winning staff writer at The Federalist and producer of “The Federalist Radio Hour.” Her work has also been featured in JP, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.