GOP efforts to defund Planned Parenthood threaten affordable health care services
Millions of people rely on the organization’s clinics for cancer screenings, prenatal and postpartum care, and contraception.

On Jan. 23, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky introduced a bill called the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, which states, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be made available to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, or to any of its affiliates.”
A press release on Paul’s Senate website links the bill to the “March for Life” event staged by abortion opponents every year in Washington, D.C., and says, “The Defund Planned Parenthood Act would ensure federal tax dollars aren’t going to organizations, like Planned Parenthood, to perform abortions.”
But the reality is that federal funding for abortion has been prohibited by the Hyde Amendment, a restriction included in annual federal spending bills since 1976, except in cases of medical emergencies in which a pregnant woman’s life is at stake.
Instead, what prohibiting federal funding of Planned Parenthood would do is put an end to Medicaid reimbursement to providers of the costs of an array of reproductive health care services for those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford them.
Fadia Halma, 55, was just 12 when she found her way to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She told the Pennsylvania Independent that she’d gotten her period at school; her family hadn’t discussed anything related to sex education with her, and not knowing what was happening to her, she believed she was dying.
“I had no idea what was going on,” Halma said. “I just knew I was in a lot of pain, and there was blood, and I was being sent to the nurse’s office.”
She said that after a few hours during which the school tried unsuccessfully to reach her mother, who worked in a factory, a teacher gave her a piece of paper with an address on it and told her to go there for help. Halma said she walked five miles to what turned out to be a Planned Parenthood clinic, where she was given menstrual pads and told what was happening with her body.
“I told them that we didn’t have health insurance. We were very poor and didn’t know how I was going to be able to buy pads. So they gave me, like, six months’ worth of pads and had somebody drive me home because I was so shaken up over it,” Halma said. “It literally had such an impact on my view of the world and helping others that I didn’t want what happened to me to happen to others.”
The health care services offered by Planned Parenthood include screenings for cervical and breast cancer and sexually transmitted infections, prenatal and postpartum care, and education on contraception. The organization reported that its clinics had seen 2.05 million patients in 2022-2023.
Halma said she used Planned Parenthood clinics for her reproductive health care through college and into her late 20s, for everything from birth control to help with recurring urinary tract infections.
Planned Parenthood funding comes from private donations, Medicaid, and federal grants that reimburse clinics for providing services to patients who are unable to pay, the latter through the federal Title X program, established in 1970 to make family planning and reproductive health care accessible.
In addition to Sen. Rand Paul’s bill, which has seven Republican cosponsors, two pending lawsuits pose a threat to the organization.
The U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (now called Medina v. Planned Parenthood), a case on whether South Carolina can end all Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood. The case was brought by by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-abortion legal group.
“The Kerr case could hobble Planned Parenthood and dramatically reduce access to family planning services in lots of states,” Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a scholar on religious liberty and health law, told Slate.
In a statement, Jenny Black, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said, “This case is politics at its worst: anti-abortion politicians using their power to target Planned Parenthood and block people who use Medicaid as their primary form of insurance from getting essential health care like cancer screenings and birth control.”
In 2023, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ordered a jury trial for a lawsuit initially filed in 2021 against Planned Parenthood and its Texas affiliates with the claim that the clinics had defrauded the Medicaid system by continuing to bill the state after it made Planned Parenthood ineligible to participate in Medicaid. Texas officials are seeking $1.8 billion in repayment and civil penalties, an amount that could cripple the organization.
After years of fundraising, talking to people about the organization, and organizing volunteer escorts for patients, Halma recently became a Planned Parenthood board member.
Halma said she’s been working to help people understand what rights they have and what legal challenges the organization may face, and making sure that people understand that those facilities are going to stay open for them.
“People don’t realize that all people use Planned Parenthood. It’s not just poor people. They think that we’re offering this to just kids who are having early sex and getting pregnant. That’s not what it’s about at all,” Halma said. “There’s all different age groups that come to Planned Parenthood, all different types of constituencies, white, Black, brown, Asian — there’s many different constituents that actually come to Planned Parenthood and use it. … A woman has the right to have health care. It’s just a basic human right, and they should not have the ability to dictate where we get that health care.”