Republicans not defunding abortion as promised

OPINION:

If there’s one person you can trust to show up to the polls, it’s the pro-life voter — which should spell good news for the GOP in November.

The Democrats’ horrifying official platform, which pushes for abortion up to birth, up to and including infanticide, is supported by less than one in 10 youth voters.

Yet, while Democrats never stop spewing their anti-child, anti-woman, anti-family love for the deliberate deaths of preborn babies — and act on that hatred by legalizing infanticide, pushing to abort veterans’ children and more — Republicans are in danger of dropping the ball yet again.

That could crush pro-life turnout in the midterms. Nearly one-third of GOP voters says they’re less likely to show up to the polls if abortion goes unaddressed by the party, according to a February Cygnal poll.

Luckily for Republicans, turning things around is possible, even with a simple majority — or even with no votes at all. All it takes is defunding Planned Parenthood and Big Abortion, which they can do swiftly and completely with the right game plan.

The surest way to end all federal taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood is through debarment, a federal investigation that could strip the organization of any grant funding from the federal government of $25,000 or more.

Debarment procedures can be conducted by any executive branch agency. The determination made in one Cabinet-level investigation applies to contracts with all executive agencies. The Trump administration could and should act quickly, no legislative votes required.

It’s as simple as giving Planned Parenthood the Department of Government Efficiency-style job review called for by many and ignored for decades, which could be accomplished with the current review underway at the Small Business Administration.

For members who don’t want to vote on abortion, it takes Planned Parenthood funding off the table. Once disqualified, the nation’s largest abortion vendor and distributor of sterilizing hormone treatments won’t get any funds.

Fast-tracking that effort and opening Planned Parenthood’s books to check the receipts is thoroughly in the hands of the Trump administration.

Contrary to what abortion pushers would have you believe, support for debarring Planned Parenthood is strong. After discussion of alleged misconduct by the organization — including financial mismanagement, failure to report sex crimes and lapses in quality of care — nearly half of youth voters supported a debarment investigation.

Only 27% opposed, according to a January Students for Life’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement poll conducted by Survey USA.

Plus, 50% believe that real healthcare providers offering all the services Planned Parenthood claims to supply, except abortions, could replace Planned Parenthood. Supporting women and children does not necessitate Americans paying for unethical abortions or sterilizing hormone mistreatments sold to vulnerable teens, and the Youth Vote agrees.

But even with such high numbers of support among the coveted youth voting bloc, the GOP has faltered on this issue.

Despite the one-year defunding via the One Big Beautiful Bill (and in contradiction to the crocodile tears of abortion vendors and activists), Planned Parenthood still recently took home more spoils from the American taxpayer than ever before.

It did so via “Government Health Services Reimbursements and Grants” such as Medicaid — a staggering $832 million. These funds were used to kill at least 434,450 babies, a record number, according to the group’s 2024-2025 report.

The GOP must take permanent, decisive action now. As it stands, on America’s 250th birthday, Planned Parenthood will be the one getting the gift: continued access to our money.

Whether through reconciliation or debarment, the GOP needs to finish what it started. If your healthcare ends the lives of children in the wombs or sterilizes confused young people, you’re doing it wrong.

With a countdown to the July 4 deadline underway, refusing to take action is a betrayal of the pro-life values the GOP runs on, voters count on, and mothers and babies rely on. And we vote.

In fact, young adults are becoming increasingly pro-life. More than half of youth voters rank abortion in their top three issues, with 83% ranking it among their top five.

Contrary to popular talking points, abortion isn’t a losing issue: It’s one of the issues. And the GOP needs to take heed and act accordingly — or risk losing everything it’s built.

• Kristan Hawkins is president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action, which has over 1,600 groups on middle and high school, college and university, medical and law school campuses in all 50 states. Follow her @KristanHawkins or subscribe to her podcast, The Kristan Hawkins Show.