SALEM, Ore. — Oregon House Democrats on Friday announced plans to double down on abortion in the state after a federal appeals court last week allowed the defunding of Planned Parenthood to move forward as approved by Congress in July of this year.
In a press statement, the Oregon House Majority Office announced that House Democrats would be creating a workgroup including Democratic House and Senate members as well as representatives from Oregon Planned Parenthood affiliates protect abortion access. In the statement, Senator Wlnsvey Campos (D-Beaverton & Aloha) argued that defunding Planned Parenthood amounts to “targeting the poorest and most vulnerable among us,” and House Majority Leader Ben Bowman (D-Tigard, Metzger, S Beaverton) claimed that “Planned Parenthood is a critical provider of health care.”
Oregon Right to Life Executive Director Lois Anderson responded to the announcement, noting that Planned Parenthood is fundamentally an abortion business, not a health care provider, and that it profits from offering abortion rather than life-affirming resources to vulnerable women and families.
“Lawmakers should be focused on lifting up Oregon moms and families with life-affirming solutions. But Oregon Democrats and their allies at Planned Parenthood once again showed where their priorities lie: promoting America’s biggest abortion corporation and defending Oregon’s radical position of legal abortion up to the moment of birth – a stance most people on both sides of the political aisle disagree with,” Anderson said. “Rather than supporting moms, as pro-life pregnancy resource centers and maternity homes do every day right here in Oregon, Planned Parenthood actually targets, not helps, the ‘poorest and most vulnerable’ by deceptively offering the trauma of abortion as the solution.”
This year, a nationwide Knights of Columbus-Marist poll about abortion laws found that, when given a binary choice, 67% of respondents across political divides rejected a position like Oregon’s that would put no limits at all on abortion.
Anderson also responded to the arguments made by the workgroup members about the alleged importance of Planned Parenthood in providing health care services to Oregonians.
“To say that Planned Parenthood is ‘a critical provider of health care’ is flatly wrong,” she said. “Planned Parenthood provides a vanishingly small percentage of real health services. The reality is this: Planned Parenthood exists to perform abortions, and abortion is the opposite of health care – it’s the destruction of innocent human life.”
The non-abortion services provided by Planned Parenthood facilities are already available at other clinics throughout the state. For example, breast and cervical cancer screening and STI testing are available at many clinics across Oregon, covered by the Oregon Health Plan. Moreover, Planned Parenthood’s latest report indicates a significant decline in non-abortion services alongside a record number of abortions.
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, while routinely performing an outsized percentage of abortions. In 2022-2023, Planned Parenthood facilities performed a record 402,230 abortions, approximately 40% of all abortions nationwide. Abortions make up over 95% of Planned Parenthood’s pregnancy resolution services across the country, according to the organization’s annual reports.
“As House Democrats plan to meet behind closed doors to come up with more ways to entrench radical abortion-on-demand policies in the upcoming legislative session – even as abortion is already fully legal up to the moment of birth in our state – Oregon Right to Life will be ready to oppose their radical agenda and stand up for the most vulnerable,” Anderson said.
The Oregon Democrats’ workgroup is slated to present a report of its findings and legislative recommendations ahead of the 2026 legislative session, according to the press release.
