A group of House Republicans is reportedly working to protect federal funding for Planned Parenthood as negotiations heat up over President Donald Trump's sweeping "big, beautiful bill," a budget reconciliation package central to his legislative agenda, Mediaite reported.
Several moderate House Republicans are lobbying behind the scenes to preserve federal funding for Planned Parenthood, according to a report by Notus, potentially complicating efforts by pro-life conservatives to exclude the nation’s largest abortion provider from Trump's proposed reconciliation package.
Trump's "big, beautiful bill" is intended to advance key elements of his agenda through Congress. The bill is being crafted under reconciliation rules, which would allow the measure to bypass a Senate filibuster and pass with a simple majority. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has publicly vowed to anti-abortion groups that the legislation will "redirect funds away from Big Abortion."
But moderate Republicans, including Reps. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.; Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; and Jen Kiggans, R-Va., are signaling resistance to that provision.
"Moderate Republicans will likely be anti-abortion advocates’ biggest hurdle in their mission to ban federal funding from Planned Parenthood in a reconciliation package — and some are already voicing their opposition," Lawler said, according to Notus.
Fitzpatrick confirmed he would raise the issue during a Tuesday night meeting, saying, "There’s other policy areas that we need to focus on."
Lawler expressed hesitancy to eliminate funding outright, noting that Planned Parenthood provides a range of medical services.
"Fundamentally, obviously, from the standpoint of providing health care to women, you know, I’m not for taking away people’s health care," Lawler added. "Obviously, Planned Parenthood does provide a lot of services outside of abortion-related services, and so, you know, I’d have to see what they're proposing."
Trump, who returned to the White House in January, issued an executive order shortly after taking office to "end the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion." The order reversed policies enacted by his predecessor in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in "Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization," which overturned "Roe v. Wade."
Vice President J.D. Vance echoed the administration's stance during the 2024 campaign, stating, "On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don't think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view."
Despite intra-party disagreements, Republican leadership maintains that the bill remains on schedule.
"It just made sense for us to push pause for a week to make sure that we do this right," Johnson said Tuesday. "We can pass that by Memorial Day. That was our original timeframe.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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