(Oregon Right to Life) — 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.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court lifted an earlier injunction against the Trump administration’s defunding of Planned Parenthood, freeing the government to cut federal dollars to the abortion corporation through the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” budget reconciliation bill. The defunding has been expected to lead to the closure of almost 200 abortion facilities nationwide.
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The following day, 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 to 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. The nationwide survey, which polled 1,387 adults nationwide between January 7–9, also found that 72% of respondents believe abortion should be restricted at six months of pregnancy or earlier, and 60% think it should only be legal in the first three months. Regardless, nine states (and Washington, D.C.), including Oregon, Colorado, and New Mexico, allow abortion up to birth with no limits.
READ: Out of Step: Oregon Allows Abortion Up to Birth, But 72% of Americans Support Abortion Limits
In her statement, 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, Oregon’s version of Medicaid.
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 performs 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.
The federal defunding of Planned Parenthood for a year is anticipated to lead to the shuttering of roughly 200 abortion facilities in 24 states nationwide – most of them closing in states where abortion is presently legal. The change will compound the existing number of abortion facilities that have been rapidly closing their doors in recent years.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reported that the number of brick-and-mortar abortion facilities dropped by 5% between 2020 and March 2024, “a net loss of 42 clinics.” That decline was partially caused by state pro-life laws passed after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
That number continues to increase. This year alone, approximately 41 abortion facilities have either closed or announced their imminent closure.
