(Oregon Right to Life) — On July 4, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that included a provision to immediately withdraw federal funds from Planned Parenthood for a year. The abortion business quickly filed a lawsuit, and a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order stalling enforcement. A hearing has been scheduled for July 21.
Planned Parenthood has claims that the defunding of its organization – potentially triggering the closure of hundreds of abortion facilities across the country – will deprive patients (particularly low-income individuals dependent on Medicaid) of critical health care.
The Lund Report, an Oregon and Washington-based health care news outlet, repeated these assertions in a Thursday article.
But the claims are highly misleading.
Below, we analyze the primary claims put forward by Planned Parenthood and highlighted by The Lund Report:
Claim #1: The Trump Funding Ban Will Prevent Thousands From Receiving ‘Life-Saving and Preventative Health Care’
The Lund Report article cited data suggesting that nearly 60% of the 73,000 patients who received services at the 13 Planned Parenthood facilities in Oregon in 2024 were on the state’s Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan.
According to Christopher Coburn, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Oregon, the Trump administration’s defunding would mean that “patients wouldn’t be able to use their insurance if they have Medicaid to access the life-saving and preventative health care that Planned Parenthood affiliates provide.”
In addition to performing abortions, the article notes, Planned Parenthood facilities “also screen for cancer, test for sexually transmitted infections, offer contraception and family planning services, provide gender-affirming hormone treatment [sic] and offer vasectomy procedures.”
But the claim relies on the premise that Planned Parenthood affiliates are the only – or, at least, the primary – resource for critical health care. That’s not true.
In fact, the non-abortion services that Planned Parenthood facilities provide are already widely available at other clinics. Low-income Oregonians can access breast and cervical cancer screening and STI testing at many locations throughout the state, covered by the Oregon Health Plan.
The other services listed – family planning services, contraception, “gender-affirming” hormones, and vasectomies – are neither life-saving nor remotely exclusive to Planned Parenthood facilities. Moreover, Planned Parenthood’s 2023-2024 report indicates a significant decline in non-abortion services alongside a record number of abortions.
“With changing practice guidelines, total cancer screening and prevention services have dropped by 54%, including declines of 61% for breast exams and 54% for pap tests,” The Charlotte Lozier Institute noted in an analysis of the data. At the same time, “Planned Parenthood performed a record 402,230 abortions in 2022-23 – an increase of over 9,500 (2%) from the previous year, and an increase of 23% since 2013.”
Finally, abortion (the deliberate killing of an unborn human being) is never medically necessary. In rare cases, a mother may have a life-threatening condition in which medical procedures intended to treat the condition of the mother may result in the unintended death of her preborn baby. Treatment of these conditions is not the same as induced abortion and can be performed by any qualified medical professional.
Claim #2: ‘Abortions Only Account for 10%’ of Planned Parenthood’s Services
In its June 10 article, the Lund Report acknowledged that “Planned Parenthood is the state’s largest abortion provider, performing about 10,000 a year” *(In its most recent report, OHA Center for Health Statistics data indicated that providers in Oregon – Planned Parenthood affiliated and otherwise – performed a total of 10,075 abortions in 2023).
The article goes on to assert that “abortions only account for 10% of [Planned Parenthood’s] services.”
But claims that only a small percentage of Planned Parenthood’s services are abortions (3% is the statistic frequently provided at the national level) are misleading and have been debunked by even left-wing sources, including Slate and The Washington Post.
As Live Action pointed out, a woman who receives an abortion and also gets an STI exam, contraception, and/or other services, will be counted as having received numerous separate services – even though the abortion was the primary reason she went to the facility.
Planned Parenthood does not offer mammograms, provides an estimated 1% of the nation’s pap tests and less than 2% of the nation’s HPV tests, and routinely performs an outsized percentage of abortions. In 2022-2023, Planned Parenthood facilities performed a record 402,230 abortions, approximately 40% of all abortions nationwide. Moreover, abortions make up over 95% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services across the country, according to the organization’s annual reports.
Claim #3: The Trump Administration’s Defunding is Meant to ‘Punish’ Planned Parenthood Facilities
Referring to Planned Parenthood’s Monday lawsuit against the Trump Administration, The Lund Report said the organization “claims the administration is specifically targeting the organization and aims to ‘punish’ the clinics…”
“The clinics, which now do not limit patients on Medicaid, would be forced to eliminate services, lay off staff and close centers, the lawsuit says, and that, in turn, will strain other health care services and affect all patients,” the article states.
This claim is somewhat true, but not in the sense seemingly implied by Planned Parenthood.
The defunding of Planned Parenthood by the Trump administration is not an arbitrary or mean-spirited effort to “punish” clinics that “serve” low-income individuals reliant on Medicaid. As already noted, even if all Planned Parenthood facilities were forced to close their doors, low-income individuals would still have access to critical health care services like cancer screenings at non-Planned Parenthood facilities.
Moreover, as the Trump administration has highlighted, its move to cut funding to the abortion giant is in line with the majority sentiment of Americans.
“The Trump Administration is ending the forced use of Federal taxpayer dollars to fund or promote elective abortion – a commonsense position that the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with,” a White House official told CBS.
A 2025 Knights of Columbus-Marist poll found that 57% of respondents across political divides disagreed with using taxpayer dollars to finance abortion.
A Final Note:
Contrary to the claims of Planned Parenthood (and repeated by The Lund Report), the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood is a major victory – and not merely for the pro-life movement.
Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Protect Women from Poor Medical Care:
Brick-and-mortar Planned Parenthood facilities are already closing their doors across the country in increasing numbers, and reports indicate the standard of care at many facilities is sub-par.
- Earlier this year, The New York Times published an article entitled “Botched Care and Tired Staff: Planned Parenthood in Crisis,” shining a spotlight on “scores of allegations reviewed by The Times that accuse Planned Parenthood of poor care.”
- “[A] New York Times review of clinic documents and legal filings, as well as interviews with more than 50 current and former Planned Parenthood executives, consultants and medical staff members, found that some clinics are so short of cash that care has suffered,” the Times article stated. “Many operate with aging equipment and poorly trained staff, as turnover has increased because of rock-bottom salaries.”
Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Honor the Law and Taxpayer Sentiment:
The federal Hyde Amendment already prohibits the use of taxpayer money to pay for abortions. Planned Parenthood has qualified for federal dollars due to offering a small number of reproductive services or products, but the data shows that Planned Parenthood is primarily an abortion business.
As previously noted, the majority of Americans disagree with the use of their tax dollars to finance abortion.
Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Protect the Unborn from the Violence of Abortion:
Planned Parenthood Action Fund recently estimated that the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood could trigger the closure of almost 200 abortion facilities across the country, most of them in states where abortion is currently legal.
The closure of abortion facilities will help direct moms and families toward resources that will actually support them, rather than shuttling them toward the trauma of abortion.
- Pro-life pregnancy resource centers offer life-affirming options for moms and families including ultrasounds; prenatal supplements; baby supplies like formula, diapers, and strollers; counseling; and adoption referrals. Pro-life maternity homes offer safe places for women escaping domestic violence or facing homelessness, and can even help moms with educational development and job placement.
- Pregnancy resource centers already outnumber Planned Parenthood abortion facilities 15–1 in the U.S.
“With pro-life advocates across the country, Oregon Right to Life celebrates the defunding of Planned Parenthood through the Trump administration’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,” Oregon Right to Life Executive Director Lois Anderson said. “We also look forward to the defeat of Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit, which is a blatant attempt to continue receiving taxpayer dollars against the will of the American people.”
Oregon Right to Life believes in the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation. Read this and all our position statements here.
