Given that President-elect Donald Trump has communicated that he won’t support new federal restrictions on abortion during his second term, pro-lifers have a different immediate priority for his return to power: defunding Planned Parenthood.

According to data compiled by the American Life League, which monitors Planned Parenthood’s activities through its STOPP International initiative, the abortion behemoth was the beneficiary of almost $700 million in government funding in 2023 — an increase of more than $80 million since 2020, Trump’s last year in office. But campaigning in October, Vice President-elect JD Vance signaled that this largesse would be targeted under a Trump-Vance administration, commenting in response to a question about defunding Planned Parenthood that Trump had been “consistent” in his opposition to taxpayer funding of late-term abortion.

A second indication that Planned Parenthood’s federal funding will be questioned by the incoming administration was the Nov. 20 Wall Street Journal commentary jointly authored by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been tapped by Trump to serve as the co-heads of his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

In their article, Trump’s government-cutting team singled out the “nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood” as one of the targets at which DOGE was “taking aim.”

Congressional Republican leaders have also communicated that Planned Parenthood’s funding will be targeted going forward, now that both houses of Congress are under GOP control.

On Nov. 22, more than 100 congressional Republicans — including current House Speaker Mike Johnson and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune — signed a letter requesting the Government Accountability Office to investigate how much money has been awarded to health centers operated by Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions.

“It is our hope that this report will provide greater insight as Congress considers funding levels and provides increased transparency and openness for our constituencies and the general public,” the Republican lawmakers stated in their letter.

According to an article published by the online news site NOTUS, “defunding Planned Parenthood is now a consensus position” for congressional Republicans, in contrast to the situation when it was first floated as a potential party priority in 2007 during the presidency of George W. Bush, by then-Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana. This unified anti-Planned Parenthood sentiment is partly a consequence of the fact that Planned Parenthood Action Fund, its political arm, has effectively become a component of the Democratic Party’s campaign apparatus.

In the 2021-2022 election cycle, for example, the Planned Parenthood PAC contributed $676,765 to Democratic Party federal candidates and $0 to Republican candidates, OpenSecrets.org reported.

These recent collective signals from the GOP stand in sharp contrast to Joe Biden’s staunchly pro-Planned Parenthood stance throughout the outgoing president’s term in office. Alongside the enhanced funding that has been conferred on the nation’s leading abortion provider during his presidency, Biden reaffirmed his esteem for the organization last month by awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards.

Planned Parenthood’s Finances

According to Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report, from 2022 to 2023, its $700 million in government funding constituted 34% of its $2.05 billion in total revenues that year. Because the Hyde Amendment continues to prohibit direct taxpayer funding of abortions, the bulk of its federal taxpayer funding flows through Medicaid reimbursements for other “sexual and reproductive health” services provided by Planned Parenthood affiliates. Planned Parenthood’s second primary source of federal funding is delivered via the Title X family-planning program.

Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report states it provided a total of more than 9.1 million “medical services” in 2021-2022, with testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases and the provision of various forms of artificial contraception comprising more than two-thirds of these services. Its affiliates also carried out a total of 392,715 abortions — the highest number ever — which are listed as part of the report’s total of “medical services.”

At first glance, given that abortions constitute less than 5% of its total services according to this accounting, this would appear to indicate that the provision of abortion is only a very minor element of Planned Parenthood’s operations. Indeed, this has long been a central talking point for the abortion provider’s leaders whenever legislators push to defund the organization because of its involvement with abortion.

But pro-life analysts say this argument is deliberately misleading.

According to a Charlotte Lozier analysis of the data in the 2022-23 annual report, abortions actually constitute an overwhelming 97.1% of Planned Parenthood’s “pregnancy-resolution” services, with prenatal services, miscarriage care and adoption services together amounting to less than 3% of such services. Since 2010, the analysis noted, the number of abortions it provides has climbed by 20%, whereas cancer screening and prevention services have dropped by 71%, prenatal services are down by 80% and contraceptive services have declined by 39%.

Michael New, a professor at The Catholic University of America and a research scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, commented last year that these facts establish “a consistent long-term trend of performing more abortions and providing fewer health services.”

Exactly how much Planned Parenthood spent on delivering abortions is unclear in the 2022-23 report, as such expenditures are lumped into the total of $1.144 billion it says its affiliates spent on medical services. But if the $700-million taxpayer funding is deducted from this total, because this money can’t be used to fund abortions directly, it can be assumed that abortion-related spending constitutes the bulk of the more than $400 million in other annual expenditures.

In addition, Planned Parenthood’s pro-life critics point out that the taxpayer money that flows to the abortion provider is “fungible,” meaning that by helping to pay for operating costs at its facilities and for other fixed expenses, this government funding allows more of Planned Parenthood’s other revenues to be spent on providing abortions.

How Defunding Might Work

Previous Republican-led efforts to halt federal funding of Planned Parenthood have been largely unsuccessful, except for a brief period during the Trump administration when Planned Parenthood was forced to temporarily withdraw from the Title X family-planning program because of a new federal Protect Life Rule requiring Title X recipients to be financially and physical separated from abortion providers. This rule, which removed an estimated $60 million in funds from Planned Parenthood’s coffers, was repealed in 2021 by the Biden administration.

To obtain a more durable and comprehensive outcome this time around, one instrument that pro-life federal legislators could utilize is passage of the Protecting Life and Taxpayers Act (H.R.372), a bill that would require all “federally funded entities to certify that they will not, subject to certain exceptions, perform abortions or provide funding to other entities that perform abortions.” The only exceptions would be for abortions undertaken in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger.

However, it remains to be seen whether this bill can be passed into law, given the narrow margin of control exercised by the GOP in both houses of Congress and the possibility of defections by some Republican members.

Another vehicle, advocated by Students for Life of America, is for the incoming Trump administration to “debar” Planned Parenthood from receiving any form of federal funding, under an administrative provision instituted to protect the federal government from fraud, waste and abuse.

Students for Life argues that Planned Parenthood could be liable for debarment on several grounds, including allegations of illegal involvement in the traffic of fetal tissues, Medicaid fraud, and failures to follow health and safety standards and to report sexual crimes.

Fetal-Trafficking Allegations

Planned Parenthood might be most vulnerable with respect to the allegations regarding trafficking in fetal issues, which gained traction starting in 2015 after the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life advocacy group, released a series of undercover videos in which abortionists discussed the harvesting and sale of fetal body parts for medical research. While Planned Parenthood has not yet faced any charges because of these revelations, pro-life legislators — including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Trump’s nominee for secretary of state — have continued to press for further investigations of the matter.

In March, in the wake of the Center for Medical Progress’ release of documentation indicating that a Planned Parenthood affiliate had provided fetal tissues to the University of California San Diego, allegedly “for valuable consideration,” Rubio sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Christi Grimm requesting a federal investigation. In November, the Center for Medical Progress released additional documentation, sourced from a California public-records request, about the Planned Parenthood affiliate supplying “viable nonanomalous” fetuses aged up to 23 weeks to the California university.

Under the Biden administration, Rubio’s calls for an investigation gained no traction. But his presence as a senior figure in the second Trump administration, alongside other Planned Parenthood critics like Vice President Vance, suggests that Planned Parenthood’s vulnerability to federal defunding could now be greater than at any previous time.