Lobbyists are pushing Capitol Hill and the White House to elevate pregnancy resource centers and to fulfill promises to slash funding for Planned Parenthood ahead of Supreme Court arguments this week that will examine whether states can choose to exclude Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements.

Domestic health organizations that provide abortions can be eligible for federal family planning funding depending on how an administration chooses to regulate the Title X family planning program. 

Under Democratic presidents, abortion providers can still apply for this funding if it is used for nonabortion purposes. Since the Reagan administration, Republican presidencies have prohibited abortion providers from being eligible for this funding. 

Federal Medicaid dollars, similarly, cannot be used to cover most abortions under the Hyde amendment, a spending provision which bans the use of federal funds for most abortions. Still, states like California and Illinois can use state funds to cover out-of-pocket costs for abortion. Clinics can still seek reimbursement for providing other services like birth control, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment or well woman exams to Medicaid patients.

Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest network of abortion providers and the biggest recipient of Title X funds during Democratic administrations, has been the proverbial punching bag for conservatives. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance have called for defunding the organization at-large.

The Department of Health and Human Services is currently reviewing Title X grant recipients to ensure they are compliant with federal law and recent executive orders.

“HHS is concerned about the compliance of several awardees impacting $27.5 million in continuation awards. HHS expects all recipients of federal funding to comply with federal law,” said Andrew Nixon, HHS director of communications, in a statement. 

An HHS official said the agency has not made any final decisions about changes to funding for Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood faces pushback even in states where most or nearly all abortions are prohibited. In these cases, clinics can only provide permitted services which continue to be eligible for federal funds, and Medicaid patients typically have the right to choose a specific provider, including Planned Parenthood.

Wednesday’s Supreme Court case, Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, could change that.

“If the Supreme Court allows South Carolina to defund Planned Parenthood, it will lift roadblocks that federal courts have built to prevent other states from doing the same,” said John Bursch, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, who will argue on behalf of the state in oral arguments, in a fundraising email sent last week.  

Medicaid blitz

On Capitol Hill, advocacy and lobbying groups are focused on highlighting the issue ahead of oral arguments.

While the administration has some control over Title X grant eligibility, changes to Medicaid payments would need to come through Congress or through a Supreme Court ruling. 

“Abortion in America has been bizarrely enshrined in our federal public policy for decades,” said Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins last Thursday during a rally held outside the Capitol. “If Planned Parenthood is defunded, we can Make America Healthy Again by ensuring those health care dollars continue to stay with women and families who need them.”

Hawkins’ group launched an ad campaign last month calling on Trump to call to defund Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers who addressed the event included Reps. Mary Miller, R-Ill., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J. and Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.  

Last week, more than 150 anti-abortion groups sent letters to lawmakers calling on Republicans to include language that would make Planned Parenthood ineligible to receive federal Medicaid reimbursements. Similar language was included in two reconciliation bills that would have repealed the 2010 health care law: a 2016 bill vetoed by then-President Barack Obama and a separate 2017 House-passed bill.

“President Trump has already rolled back funding for abortion groups overseas, but Congressional action is necessary to stop the biggest source of taxpayer cash for the domestic abortion industry – Medicaid,” the groups wrote. “In an era of reexamining federal funding, Congress should start by cutting funding for Big Abortion in the upcoming reconciliation bill.”

Speaking at the Thursday rally, SBA Pro-life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said this will be the first time since 2017 that it’s politically realistic to defund Planned Parenthood. 

“I can tell you one thing, this movement is completely unified in its first priority, and that is to defund big abortion in this reconciliation bill,” she said. 

“This is why the reluctance we see from some Republicans on Capitol Hill, the reluctance to use every tool we have available — reconciliation, a DOGE review, the barring and defunding Planned Parenthood permanently — it makes no sense,” said Hawkins.

The financial impact of excluding the organization from Medicaid funds is difficult to measure.

The latest estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on how permanently blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds was issued in 2015. By that measure, CBO said that legislation implementing such a ban would actually increase direct spending by $130 million over a 10-year period.

Dannenfelser said even a one- or two-year defunding would issue a final blow for the abortion provider to “go down as an institution.” Planned Parenthood sent a fundraising pitch based on the calls to “defund” the group last week.

“When politicians talk about ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood, they really mean blocking people from getting care,” the email states. “This is a politically motivated attack by lawmakers who want to take away our control of our own bodies.”

Among those advocating to “defund” Planned Parenthood, there are two camps: those that want to end these funds as part of the larger efforts to trim federal spending and those that want the money to shift to anti-abortion pregnancy centers.

During his first term, Trump’s Title X rule allowed some pregnancy centers to be eligible for Title X money. 

The Obria Group, a mostly California-based network of pregnancy centers that oppose hormonal contraception, received a multimillion-dollar contract that began in 2019. Trump has not yet, but is expected to, issue a new version of the Title X rule.

The lobbying blitz dovetails another abortion-related effort.

Last week, Reps. Smith of New Jersey, Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y. and Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn., held a press conference on Smith’s legislation that would prohibit local and state as well as the federal government from discriminating against pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions in favor of a provider or group that does support or provide abortions.

The House passed similar legislation in early 2024 that would prevent HHS from implementing policies that would discriminate against pregnancy centers seeking federal funding. The effort was largely driven to rebuke a proposed Biden administration rule that would have made some pregnancy centers ineligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds.