JD Vance casts deciding vote to defund Planned Parenthood
The Catholic Herald • July 3, 2025
The United States Senate has narrowly approved a sweeping budget bill that includes a measure to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood for one year.
The legislation, which has become known as the “Big Beautiful Bill”, passed by the slimmest of margins. Vice-President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote to secure passage through the Senate, after three Republican senators joined the opposition to the Bill, which included all Democrats.
The Bill had initially aimed to block Planned Parenthood’s federal funding for a decade; however, the Senate’s parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, intervened. She found that the long-term defunding provision violated budget reconciliation rules, prompting Republicans to revise the bill’s language and shorten the ban to one year. After these changes, the Parliamentarian allowed the Planned Parenthood measure to remain in the package, clearing the way for a final Senate vote.
The budget package now returns to the US House of Representatives, which must approve the Senate’s changes before the Bill can become law. The House had narrowly passed its initial version of the legislation in late May by just a single vote, with every Democrat and two Republicans opposed. If House leaders cannot gather enough votes to pass the Senate-amended bill, the measure may have to be resolved by a joint conference committee of both chambers.
Taxpayer money is already prevented from directly paying for abortions through the Hyde Amendment. Nonetheless, Planned Parenthood still receives large government subsidies each year for other services, thereby bolstering the United States’ single biggest abortion provider. Government data shows that Planned Parenthood received more than $1.7 billion in public funds over 2019 and 2021. The organisation’s latest annual report recorded nearly $800 million from taxpayers in a single year, accounting for almost 40 per cent of its total revenue.
US Catholic bishops have applauded the budget provisions aimed at ending indirect abortion subsidies. In May, Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo and Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester commended the House’s inclusion of a ban on Planned Parenthood funding, insisting that Americans should not be forced to subsidise abortions or gender-transition procedures with their tax money.
Pro-life groups across the US have welcomed the move to change federal funding of Planned Parenthood. The president of SBA Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, reacted by saying: “There’s no justification for forcing taxpayers to bankroll a scandal-ridden industry that prioritises abortion, gender transitions, and partisan politics over prenatal care, cancer screenings and other legitimate services, which continue to decline.”
She described the vote as “the highest priority pro-life vote in decades”.
Lila Rose, president of Live Action, a leading US pro-life organisation, described the move as “a start but not enough”.
She added: “The House should restore the 10-year defund they already passed. No more tax dollars for orgs that kill babies and sterilise teens.”
Reacting to the decision, Planned Parenthood wrote on instagram that “almost 200 health care centres could now close” and that “Planned Parenthood will never stop fighting for your care”.
Photo: Vice-President JD Vance arrives at the US Capitol for a House Republican Conference meeting on a resolution that would provide a six-month funding extension and avert a government shutdown, Washington, DC, USA, 11 March 2025. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images.)