WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life leaders are asking Senate GOP leadership to renew the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood for a decade, just months before the existing defunding runs out. 

Last July, President Donald Trump signed into law his controversial “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (BBB), a wide-ranging policy package that includes a one-year ban on federal tax dollars going through Medicaid to entities that commit abortions for reasons other than rape, incest, or supposed threats to the mother’s life.

However, that provision is slated to expire this July, so, on April 22, a coalition of 40 pro-life leaders sent a letter to Republican Senate majority leader calling on Congress to renew the defunding not for another year, but for another 10.

“Without further congressional action, federal funding for the abortion industry will resume after July 4, 2026, and taxpayer dollars will once again flow to organizations whose core business model relies on abortion,” the letter states. “As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of American independence, Congress has an obligation to ensure that federal spending reflects fiscal discipline, accountability, and respect for life. The financial stakes are significant. Planned Parenthood alone receives over $830 million annually in taxpayer funding, primarily through federal health programs. Ending this funding would represent one of the most meaningful pro-taxpayer reforms Congress can enact.”

Signatories include the leaders of Live Action, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, the National Right to Life Committee, the March for Life, Catholic Vote, Students for Life, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, numerous state Right to Life affiliates, and more.

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has already introduced an amendment to the latest Senate Budget Resolution, which would extend the ban through 2035.

Cutting off federal funds to the abortion industry is an issue on which Trump’s second term most closely resembles the pro-life record of his first.

Within weeks of returning to office, Trump began enforcing the Hyde Amendment, which bans direct federal funding of most abortions; reinstated the Mexico City Policy which forbids non-governmental organizations from using taxpayer dollars for most abortions abroad; and cut millions in pro-abortion subsidies by freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spending. 

The White House’s budget proposal for the 2027 fiscal year contains numerous pro-life provisions, renewing the Hyde Amendment, the Hyde-Weldon Amendment against funding entities that discriminate against pro-life healthcare providers, and the Kemp-Kasten provision against funding any organization involved in coercive abortion programs. It also forbids State Department grants from going to organizations that commit or promote abortions, bans any funding of research involving the use of aborted fetal tissue or cells, requires medical students to have to consciously opt in to any abortion training they might take rather than being required by default and having to opt out, blocks funding of abortions in federal prison, bans funds from going to elective abortion via the Peace Corps and Federal Health Employee Benefits program, and more.

However, White House budget proposals are not binding, and actual budgets typically end up falling far short after working their way through Congress. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has reportedly ruled out including a renewal of Planned Parenthood’s aforementioned defunding in the upcoming reconciliation bill, in the interest of passing a clean renewal of funding for the Department of Homeland Security and, with it, the president’s deportation priorities.

The administration also angered pro-lifers recently by renewing Biden-era Title X grants to Planned Parenthood for one more year. The White House claims it was bound by law to do so but stressed that this would be the final year. Pro-lifers have urged Trump to reinstate his first term’s Protect Life Rule, which required complete “financial and physical” separation between Title X recipients and involvement with abortion.

To end the cycle of uncertainty of having to periodically fight for temporary defunding measures at regular budget intervals, pro-lifers have also called for new standalone laws to fully and permanently defund the abortion industry: the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, which permanently bans federal funds from being used for abortion; and the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which disqualifies Planned Parenthood and its affiliates specifically. But they would require 60 votes to make it through the Senate.